A MIDDLE-AGED MAN IS CHOSEN BY THE CELESTIAL FORGE AND FOUND HIMSELF ON RIFTS EARTH

Disclaimer: I own nothing in this story.

Warning!

Violence, War, Magic & the Supernatural

The fictional worlds of Riftsare violent, deadly, and filled with aliens, war, and supernatural monsters.

Other-dimensional beings often referred to as "demons," torment, stalk, and prey on humans. Alien life, monsters, vampires, ghosts, ancient gods and demigods, as well as magic, insanity, psychic powers, and combat are all elements of the setting. All of it is fiction.

Please note that I do not condone or encourage the occult, the practice of magic, the use of drugs, or violence.


Chapter 2: "I don't speak Spanish…"

I watched the young woman sleeping on one of my blankets. We were outside my house-cavern as I didn't want her to feel trapped when she'll wake up. Because of that, I also left all my weapons inside the cavern. I didn't find anything that could be hers in the Mountaineer ATV… Apart from the iconic Sun Medallion around her neck, of course.

I shook my head as I remembered the difficulty to release her from the cage and the bindings. Mega-Damage Capacity items were a bitch to deal with. It was fortunate to find the keys as I wasn't sure my Supernatural Strength in golem form would have sufficed, at least without hurting her.

Perplexing situation nonetheless. The Zia I knew wouldn't have required such precautions. Malcolm and his minions probably acted on wrong intelligence or they didn't have more appropriate restraints. I looked up to the sky. No condor flying around so I hoped Patu, her tame condor, hadn't been killed by those bandits.

Woah, Baran. Please, remember that this isn't The Mysterious Cities of Gold. Esteban or Tao wasn't there… Still, knowing about the Empire of the Sun and the Nazca Lines system, I wondered about the possible existence of the Golden Condor… Zia was also taller than me.

Finally, I saw her stirring and waking up. Her eyes immediately zeroed on me. I opened my mouth and stopped. She had green eyes, a lighter color than mine, but green eyes nonetheless… Zia was supposed to have black eyes.

"Donde están ellos? Quién es usted?" (Where are they? Who are you?)

I clamped my mouth and facepalmed. "I don't speak Spanish…" The few years I took this language in school had completely deserted my mind since then. My fluency in English was due to my practice of seeing series and movies in Original Version or Subtitled in English.

I sighed and turned to her. She seemed wary. "No hablar español, señorita." (No speak Spanish, Miss)

She blinked and frowned. I suddenly had the impression that she was… powering up? I felt goosebumps… DANGER!

I jumped up on my feet and whirled around. There was a man in forest camouflage Bushman armor with a rifle ready at the rear of the Mountaineer. The air suddenly screamed as it was heated by an energy beam.

I didn't feel anything. I was just looking at the smoking stump in place of my right arm, sectioned just below the shoulder. I fall to my knees as an immense weakness came within me. Why I wasn't feeling any pain?

Behind me, words were flowing rapidly in an unknown spidery language… Curiously, I still did understand them.

"O, Earth! Listen to she who commands! Wrap around his weapon!"

I achieved my fall on my left side. I didn't have any strength. I saw the very soil reaching to the weapon of the man and rendering it useless. An orange blur revealed itself to be Zia running at the speed of a horse towards the shooter who was going for his vibro-knife.

The frail Zia went for his wrist and blocked it as if the man was a child and not a strong adult. Her other hand reached for his helmet and she began to bang his head against the armor of the Mountaineer.

Darkness encroached my consciousness as I witnessed the Damsel-In-Distress of The Mysterious Cities of Gold pummeling the bandit like a rag-doll. After a fraction of Eternity, I felt myself going away and my last sight was a pair of worried green eyes looking at me.

The End…

I opened my eyes to the ceiling of my house-cavern. I suddenly felt very happy to see such a familiar ceiling: I wasn't dead… Yet, anyway.

Oh, my God..! Zia..! My arm..! Adrenaline surged in my blood vessels and I threw away the blanket covering me, trying to sit up.

General pain and a gentle, feminine, and yet strong like steel hand stopped me. "Don't move, yet. Your nerve system is still under the shock of the laser wound. And your arm is still tender from being regenerated."

That voice… That gentle voice seemed different from the French voice actor Isabel Ganz. It was more like… Rei Sakuma..? And what did she say about my arm?

My right arm moved in front of me, answering my thoughts. My vision went blurry as I couldn't control my tears. I didn't lose my arm… or my life. I reached for her hand, squeezing it lightly. "Thank you… Thank you from the bottom of my heart." Damn, my voice was breaking.

She smiled, illuminating metaphorically the cavern. "You're welcome. I wasn't going to leave my savior dying at my feet."

I chuckled and then frowned as she pushed me back on my bed. "I can understand you… How..?"

She pulled out her thick mass of black hair from her left ear, revealing a high-tech silvery clip-like earring above a rather large gold one that I didn't remark about before. "My kidnappers had some equipment. This is a Language Translator for American to Spanish. That version can only store 2 languages, but it's faster than a standard handheld unit. I put one on your left ear with Spanish to American."

Indeed, I could felt it now and hearing a neutral feminine voice translating as she talked. "Kidnappers? I thought they were bandits or slavers?"

She snorted. "I do not doubt that I was about to be sold, but not for my gifts. For the knowledge I have of the Empire of the Sun."

My left eyebrow raised. "Gifts..? But I'm being impolite to my healer. I'm Baran Sunheart, a human from another parallel Earth very recently lost in this place."

She nodded. "That explains your poorly healed eyes and the contrast between your clothes and your glasses. I am Zia Inca, daughter of the Goddess Pachamama Inca and the Sun Priest Papakamayo Inca. Oh, by the way, I also treated your eyes and other medical problems."

My eyes widened. Inca… The only beings in the Empire of the Sun that had the right to bear this family name were the descendants of the demigods and godlings from the Pantheon of the Sun led by Viracocha. Zia was a True Inca, almost a godling, and bore the blood of Pachamama, the All-Mother and Goddess of Earth. Truly one of the Children of the Sun… With psionics, supernatural strength and resistance, and Earth-aspected magical powers.

This was and wasn't the Zia I knew about. And now, I found about my missing glasses and the fact that I didn't need them anymore… Talk about a succession of shocks.

I was too tired to speak more and went promptly to sleep. A full 24 hours of sleep according to a smiling Zia who was eating my sweets (honey collected at great cost and pain from a wild hive as I was phobic against any kind of flying insects with stingers) and drinking my herbal teas when I woke up.

Oh well, I was better physically, and having my healer happy was something nice and appropriate. The only lingering trace of my ordeal was my untanned right arm… And the 4 tombs dug by Zia. I really didn't think she could kill someone.

After a few hours, it was evident that Zia was accustomed to taking the lead. She already had inventoried my meager possessions and was searching among the items of the bandits for clues about their final destination and thus the sponsor of her kidnapping.

It was me who recognized the place marked by a star on the map Zia was consulting. "That's Cibola's location… Shit! Inix!"

"You know Cibola?"

I snorted. "More exactly, I know OF Cibola, the Gilded City under the control of Inix, from the supernatural species of the Soul Worms. It's a slave society and a trans-dimensional market, almost as bad as the Splugorth." I frowned. "Since he wants to know about the local powers, you were about to be enslaved and interrogated."

Zia looked at me and narrowed her eyes. I felt dread as an icy sensation permeated my brain. "How do you know this, Baran Sunheart? How can you know this since you're a recently arrived D-bee?"

Oh shit..! Way to go, Baran. Did your foot taste good? Well, too late now. Nothing to do but to tell the truth. "You already know that the Megaverse is infinite. You can potentially find anything in it." She nodded. "Well… In this infinite number of worlds, someone created a story and then others build upon this story until they created a vast universe. The story is about the post-apocalyptic Earth of the Rifts." She blinked. "And, of course, among the books describing this world, there were 2 books about South America: The Pantheon of the Sun, the Nazcan Line Markers, the Arkhons, the Megaversal Legion, the Silver River Republics, the cities of Cibola, Manoa and Magua. And more, much more."

She nodded slowly. "Yes… You're telling the truth. An impossible truth despite me reading it in your mind…"

My eyes widened. "You can read my mind!?" The sensation of cold disappeared and I facepalmed. "Of course, you can. You're a True Inca with psionic powers."

"So are you, Baran Sunheart." I looked at her completely flabbergasted. "It's minor, but I can sense a degree of telepathic sensitivity and you know how to close your mind." She went pensive. "That explains your… familiarity with Rifts Earth and your ignorance of some very basic aspects. Like knowing the specs of those energy weapons and yet not knowing where the safety was."

She went back to a guarded posture. "However, that doesn't explain all this." She swept her arm to point at… Well, everything I did with my Cheat skills and newfound Earth power.

"Ah… That…"

"Yes, that."

I combed my hair with my hand. "Well… It's a little more complicated."

She crossed her arms and glared at me. I gulped as I was reminded of my mother surprising me with my hand in the cookie jar. "Try me."

I sighed and raised my hands in surrender. "Okay, okay… I'm a D-bee, yes. But I didn't come from a Rift. I was kidnapped and sent here with just my glasses. No clothes, money, phone, or any kind of tools." She frowned and her gaze softened. "Whoever or whatever is responsible for my presence seems to be content to observe me and when I really need it, help me."

"Help? How?"

"I'm a modern city dweller. I wouldn't have survived more than a week in this wilderness. And, so I received instant skills with ludicrous crafting speed in how to survive, hunt, forage, make stone and wooden tools, and identify the plants. It's very recently, as I needed something to work on clay, that I received this… Earth-aspected magic." I shook my head at her curious expression. "Nothing like yours or the Earth Warlocks. You draw from an internal pool of energy to construct and power your spells. I receive energy from a source of Earth Elemental power for mine. Your spells are rather specialized in their effects, mine are more generalist."

She tilted her head to the side. "And you didn't receive anything when you were wounded?"

"The process seems to require to focus entirely on a precise need and then mentally wish for it." I shuddered. "I wasn't able to think as I was dying..." I sighed and shrugged. "Moreover, it seems the… Let's call him Entity, doesn't want me to escape this Death World. I fear he's doing it for entertainment. The 2 times I received a gift, I heard a masculine voice saying 'Granted'."

She nodded. "Alright… I believe you. So, what are your plans, now?"

I ruefully chuckled. "Please, Zia." She blinked in surprise at my casual use of her first name. "I'm not a child or an idiot. If you accept, it would be safer for me to accompany you to the Empire."

She turned back and walked to the Mountaineer. "True, Baran, you're not. And, of course, you can come with me." She turned her head and gazed at me. "But I'm 876 years old and I also need you to trust that I know what I'm doing."

I thought my eyes took my entire face as I looked at her examining the cargo bay. I sat on the ground and double-facepalmed. 876 years old..? She didn't look a day over 18… It was only now that I remembered that the True Incas could live 40,000 years on average. No wonder I felt like a child in front of her. I was a child to her.

Alright, all this wasn't very relevant to the situation. It was simply a question of proper organization. We needed to sort out all the equipment of the late bandits, gathering enough preserved food, making sufficient water recipients, seeing if the clothes of those bandits were good enough for us (if not, my tailoring skill will be very useful) and, of course, preparing… the … Mountaineer…

I slowly turned back to the vehicle and walked like a zombie to Zia. She blinked at me with a little worry as I gazed at her with a thousand yards stare. I pointed at the ATV. "Zia? Please, tell me you can drive that?"

Her eyes widened and she blushed as she answered with a small voice. "No, Baran… I'm more of a horse rider or having a driver assigned. And you don't know how?"

I sighed and shook my head. "I can drive a car, pilot a sailboat, but a truck..? No way, especially in an off-road situation. Unless it's at turtle speed or with plenty of bumps, accidents, and whatnot."

I facepalmed while Zia was looking everywhere except me or the ATV. "Well, it seems you're going to see a demonstration on how I receive my gifts sooner than we either thought."

She watched me with curiosity and… Yeah, now that I knew, I could sense her psionic powers being used to analyze or passively probe me as I gathered my will.

I drew a deep breath and released it. 'I need a mode of transport for the two of us until we reach the Empire of the Sun.'

Granted.

Zia gasped and I opened my eyes to promptly closed them as a horse snorted and blew air from its nostrils at a few inches from my face.

I cautiously opened one eye to stare at a big horse in front of me, probably a Percheron. Black coat and mane with a white star on the nose. In fact, it looked like… "Tornado..?"

I cautiously stroked the velvet nose of the splendid beast. It really looked like the iconic horse of the old Walt Disney series of Zorro. He didn't seem hostile or annoyed at me and I had the distinct intuition that I was its master.

I turned a bewildered face toward Zia. "And I know how to ride and properly take care of it. What did you see?"

She gesticulated at the horse. "Well… At first, I saw an all-terrain motorbike with a sidecar, then it… morphed into… that." She looked at the horse. "And yet… I can sense its emotions. It's… alive. Tornado, you say?" She nodded. "Appropriate. And such a magnificent specimen."

Tornado whinnied and seemed to draw itself in a proud posture. Oh, great, my horse had an ego.

I blinked and looked around. "Hey, wait a minute…" I turned to Zia. "Where's yours?"


Notes: BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I'm a real sadistic to do that to my character.

A few questions you should have:

Yes, Baran is a Major Psionic with Sixth Sense, Mind Block, Detect Psionics, Summon Inner Strength, Meditation, and Presence Sense. Also 48 ISP.

He gained that by entering the surcharged environment of Rifts Earth. It happened at the beginning of the Rifts (Chaos Earth RPG from Palladium) as many people suddenly developed Psionics or Magic.

The age of Zia was established by taking her age of 12 in 1532 and the current date of the story in 101 P.A. (2396 A.D.)

Perks gained from Ghost Rider.

And, please comment and comment again. Posts are the fuel of my imagination.