The Prince, the Princess, and the Other Wizard
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: Castle is magic, but I have no magic. Or Castle. Rating: K+ for language Time: A few months after The Princess and the Wizard.
"Are we flying through this shit or swimming through it?" The El Tee screamed. Even with the sound on the intercom all the way up, the pilot could barely hear him over the sound of the wind, rain, and the continuous roar of thunder.
"We're still flying, sir." He yelled back.
"I thought this wasn't the rainy season?"
"It isn't, sir. I was here before with one of the first Huey units in country. The rains shouldn't come for another four months."
"Shit." The El Tee muttered.
He moved back into the passenger compartment of the Huey helicopter and spoke, or rather yelled, to his platoon medic, Doc Park.
"How is he?
"I've got him sedated, but he needs a hospital bad."
The El Tee looked down at the LRRP sergeant. He was awake and looked alert.
"Sergeant Ryan, how you feeling?"
"Like I got gut shot, sir." Was all he could manage to get out.
He sat back down and tried to think of something useful to do. Nothing came to mind.
They flew for another twenty minutes and then, as quickly as the storm had begun, they flew out of it.
"Look for the other birds!" The pilot screamed. "That storm would've scattered us all over the place. I don't want anyone having a midair."
"Over there!" Yelled Sergeant Johnstone, the platoon sergeant. "To our left and behind us. That's Wild Child for sure."
"See anyone else?" the El Tee yelled. He didn't want to lose whole choppers full of his troops.
"Free Huey says he's about a mile directly behind us." The pilot told him. "And Slick Ride is under us about two hundred feet off the ground."
"Where the hell is Barbara Ann?" The copilot said.
As if in response, the pilot of Barbara Ann radioed in.
"Where are you guys? And where the fuck are we?"
"Where the fuck are you?" Death from Above's pilot replied. "And we're in fucking Vietnam."
"Yeah? Well, I'm over a forest of pines. God damned ponderosa pines, just like back home and there ain't no pines in Nam."
"Pines? Where are you? What can you see?"
'Pines and…there's a green plain off to my right."
"We're over the plain. Head for it."
it took a few minutes, but eventually all of the five helicopters were re-united.
"Sir, we ought to land and check the birds out. God knows what might have happened. I've never even heard of a storm like that."
"Do it." The El Tee said.
They set down and while the pilots and the crew chiefs checked the helicopters, the lieutenant got his men in a defensive circle around the birds.
"El Tee, there's something weird here." Warrant Officer Peters, the pilot of Death from Above said.
"No shit."
"Sir, our av gas tanks are full. We have 242 gallons of av gas."
"That can't be. We left Di An, flew halfway to fucking Cambodia to extract the LRRP team and then flew through the storm from hell. Your gas gauges are wrong."
"No, sir. The crew chiefs checked the tanks themselves. They're full all right."
"That just can't be."
"But it is, sir. After just a quick check, the birds look good, but we're going to go over them really carefully.""
"And how the hell did we end up with pine trees in Nam?"
"I dunno, sir. Maybe he can tell us." WO Peters pointed to a man riding towards them with a string of packhorses following him. The El Tee walked towards the man.
"Excuse me, sir, can you tell me where I am?"
"Where you are?" He asked. "You're right there, of course. Any damned fool could see that."
"Sir, we just got here, and we don't know how we got here."
"I don't know either, young fellow. Your wagons have no wheels. Can't get anywhere with wagons with no wheels."
"They're not wagons, they're helicopters."
"Whatever. They still have no wheels. Damned fool." The man began to ride off.
"Can you tell me the name of this place we're at?"
"The Greensward. Everyone knows that. No place to be with wagons with no wheels."
"These are helicopters. They fly."
"Fly?" The man laughed. "What do you think you are? Dragons? Flying wagons indeed!"
"Wait! There are dragons around here?"
"Of course, there are dragons around here, you damned fool. There's one now." He pointed into the sky where the El Tee could see something that looked very much like a dragon flying towards them.
"Don't worry, young fellow. That's a pink dragon, Orlando by name. Nice enough young dragon, but he'll talk your ear off if you let him."
"He's not dangerous?"
"Only to your hearing." With that, the man spurred his horse and went off.
"Sergeant Johnstone, he said we have a dragon incoming, but he says he's friendly."
"A dragon, sir? Was he kidding?"
"Look over there." The El Tee said, gesturing. "Everybody stay cool and don't shoot without orders."
The dragon settled onto the ground and walked over to the El Tee.
"Hi, my name's Orlando. I'm a pink dragon and you're humans. I like humans. They're nice and friendly, not like goblins or zombies. Oh, and humans make beer. I just love beer. Do you have any beer?"
"No. We don't have any beer." Was all the El Tee could think of to say.
'That's a shame. I tried drinking wine, but it upsets my stomach."
"Uh, did you say there are goblins and zombies around here?"
"Oh, not around here. There aren't any goblins for many miles, and I haven't seen any zombies in weeks."
They then heard the faint cry of "Orlando! Where are you?"
Orlando looked up.
"Oops, that's mom. And my little sister Berenice. She's a brat. She always tells on me when I drink human beer. Gotta go." He turned his head. "By the way, your wagons have no wheels."
Orlando began to run and flap his wings and soon took off.
"That was a dragon." Sergeant Johnstone said, shaking his head.
The El Tee walked over and sat down on the floor of the Huey. He checked his watch.
"Okay. We'll continue checking the birds and then we'll eat. By my watch, it's past dinner time, but from the position of the sun, I'd say were getting close to lunch. Everyone keep your heads on a swivel. There are dragons around and he said there are goblins and zombies."
The check of the birds found nothing, and everyone began to eat.
The El Tee pulled out a can of cocktail wieners and speared a few.
"From your girlfriend, sir?" Johnstone asked.
"My mother. My girlfriend became a radical in our last year of college. She wanted me to go to prison to make a statement about the war. The statement I wanted to make was not going to prison."
"You ROTC or OCS, sir?"
"ROTC. Penn State. Graduated, got commissioned in Armor, sent to Fort Knox for Armor Officers Basic Course and then on to Vietnam where I was supposed to take over an armored cavalry platoon. Somehow, I got assigned to an aero rifle platoon. Anyone know how that happened? An aero rifle platoon is a captain's job, not a brand-new second lieutenant's job."
"Captain Terzakis was riding in a C and C bird that went in. Rotors hit a dammed tree. He got busted up and sent back to the World."
"Isn't there supposed to be a lieutenant to run the platoon on the ground while the captain stays in the C and C bird?"
"There was. First Lieutenant Zabriski. Got hit by a drunk driver in Australia while on R&R. Went back to the World as well. We were supposed to get some hard charging captain out of Headquarters MACV, but he went to the First Cav. Then there was someone out of 18th Airborne Corps back in Bragg, but we never heard anything more about that. Then we got you, sir."
The El Tee shook his head.
"Shit. My very first mission in Vietnam and I end up in some place with dragons, goblins and zombies."
"You have a good platoon, Lieutenant. One, they're all volunteers for the aero-rifle platoon even if they're draftees. Two, they've all got a little time in the Nam. No FNGs here. The pilots are volunteers, of course as are the crew chiefs. So, you're in good shape."
"How about you, Johnstone?"
"Me? This is my second tour. I got drafted in '62. The first thing I noticed about the Army was that it wasn't fucking Arkansas. I stayed in. Came here with the Herd, the 173rd Airborne Brigade, in '65. We were the first Army ground combat unit in the Nam. Now I'm back again."
The El Tee turned to his RTO, Gregory, a tall slender Black from Chicago.
"What about you, Gregory?"
"I got out of high school and found no jobs in the hood. I finally got a job delivering pizza for some old Italian guy, but it was no career. I took a few courses at a local junior college, but nothing interested me. Then I got my draft notice. My older brother told me not to get involved in the white man's war, but I didn't listen. My uncle who'd been in WWII told me to find the best soldiers I could and stick with them. They'd know how best to stay alive. So here I am, fighting the white man's war against yellow men who're trying to kill me. Funny thing is, I have white friends for the first time in my life. I don't know if that'll last after Nam, but…" He shrugged.
The El Tee turned to Doc Park, the platoon medic.
"What about you, Park?"
"My parents are from Korea, sir. I was born three weeks after we got to LA. I couldn't possibly have avoided the Army. My family, hell, the whole Korean American community remembers what the communists did when they invaded South Korea in 1950. I wanted to train as a surgical tech, but I ended up a medic."
"Evans, what about you?"
Ray Evans was a machine gunner in the platoon, temporarily manning a door gun on the helicopter.
"I'm like Park, sir. I'm from Montrose, Pennsylvania. Coal mining country. Every Fourth of July they have a big parade. The American Legion, the VFW, the DAV and the local Reserve unit all march and the mayor makes a big speech. If I hadn't enlisted, I'd never be able to go back home, but I'm here because I want to be."
"Did your girlfriend really want you to go to prison to protest the war, sir?" Johnstone asked.
"She did. Said it was what Gandhi would have done."
"Who's he?" Evans asked.
"Big time pacifist." Gregory said. "The Reverend Martin Luther King got a lot from him."
"When she found out I was headed for Vietnam, she wrote me a letter asking me how I could kill innocent women and children. I wrote back and gave her the standard Army answer."
They all erupted in laughter.
"You didn't, sir." Johnstone said, still laughing.
"I sure did. I told her that to kill innocent women and children you had to aim lower and not lead them as much."
"You're going to be okay, sir." Johnstone said.
"El Tee, we got company." One of the platoon members called out. "One, headed straight for us."
Everyone stood up and looked at the newcomer who was still a good five hundred yards away. The El Tee examined the stranger through his binoculars.
"Looks like a chick." The El Tee said.
"Looks like she's wearing a dress with sequins." Johnstone added.
"I think it's a chain mail coat. She's got a sword and a helmet. Long blonde hair, though. Running pretty fast. Wonder if someone's chasing her?"
"Or something." Someone added.
TBC