It had been almost two solid weeks since she had arrived in the new world. Vashanna looked up from her table. Two weeks of almost constant translation and she was still nowhere closer to another portal spell. She pushed her chair back as she got up and walked slowly outside. The sun was bright in the heat of midday. The trees around her were almost entirely deciduous, which meant that she was far enough toward the equator so she wouldn't have to worry about freezing when winter came. If winter came. She had no idea about this place.

Heavy Metal By Joshua Trujillo

Part 3 - Harvester of Sorrow

-Mistress?- a voice called in her head, -Lady Naelyn, you should really eat something. I realize that you're in mourning for your clan, I am as well, but starving yourself will not honor them.-

Vashanna huffed slightly and crossed her arms in front of her. She leaned against the doorframe and looked into the small, makeshift cabin. Her father's sword stared back. The blade was uncovered and stood on its point, spinning like a top in the corner. Pasha's personality image floated several inches above the spinning hilt of the sword. He stared impassively back at her. She scowled slightly at him, but knew the old blade was right. She couldn't continue her work without further sustenance. She needed something to eat and, unfortunately, she knew where to find some.

-Please take me along with you, Mistress,- Pasha implored, folding his hands in front of him, -You spend so much time there and the least I could do is help in identification.-

"Pasha, there's not all that much to ID," Vashanna sighed, "I mean, I buried father and the rest..."

She wasn't about to tell him about the two elders she found.

-As leader of your clan_-

"I'm NOT the leader because there IS no clan, Pasha!" she interrupted.

-Lady Naelyn,- he said calmly, -As I've said, I know your grief runs deep, even deeper perhaps than when I was laid to rest with your mother, but you MUST accept responsibility. I know, because you are daughter to the smartest elf king *I* know, that you will eventually find a way for you to get home. That being the case, it falls on you to carry on the work of the clan.-

"Pasha, my clan was a lie," she sighed, suddenly weary, "I already told you what I found in those scrolls...We..."

She hung her head as she sighed again. The memory was still too painful. Pasha stood silent for a minute before speaking again.

-I cannot speak for what I do not know, Mistress,- Pasha said slowly, -But, for the good that I DO know of, much can be attributed to your clan. And I think, whatever their transgressions, they have more than made for it.-

She didn't look at him, preferring to stare down at the floor she'd carefully built. Two weeks. In that time, she built a small, two- room cabin and had scrounged the rest from the wreckage of the accident. It took lots of trial and even more error, but she had the handle pretty soon. Even quit whacking her thumb with the hammer. The materials were easy to get since her family was adding new layers to the estate and everything not tied down got caught up in the transfer. That included some mighty nice lumber. The place was passably livable, with a good view of the sea and the numerous rocky crags up the coast. She knew that, several hundred yards inland was a wasteland. Like something out of this world had flew down and decimated the earth. She almost laughed at the absurd beauty of the thing when she first saw its shape. A butterfly. She huffed a heavy breath and walked to where Pasha spun silently in place. He looked up at her expectantly as she reached for the pommel. She slowly let the blade come to a halt in her tightening hand. At full stop, she hefted the blade and idly felt the weight. Pasha agreed to teach her what he knew about swordplay, which was considerable, but the training was still slow. Mostly because Pasha was almost half her five-foot-three-inch height. Vashanna looked around for his scabbard and, finding it near her bed in the next room, slipped him inside. She slung the blade over her shoulder and braced against the slight discomfort of Pasha in her mind. It was no more than a little feeling of vertigo, but she hadn't gotten used to it yet.

-Far be it from me to question your motives, Mistress, but...- Pasha grew quiet, -I don't *believe* I would chafe so much if you'd wear one of your brassieres.-

Vashanna stopped in midstride and glared at him in her mind.

-It was just a suggestion...-

"I swear those things were invented by men..."

-Actually, it was a male elf named...-

Vashanna grumbled at the chafing and tried to ignore the history lesson as she headed out.

The jungle had grown back in the time since her arrival, at least, most of it. The blast zone was still dead and Vashanna suspected that it'd remain dead for many thousands of years to come. She stepped over a rotting log and some mammalian looking things scurried for cover. She still couldn't classify half the things she'd seen, but from the look of things, this place and earth had many things in common. Rats of varying size was one thing. Or, how was it her father had put it? Rodentia, to use the Latin? Her first moments in the new world were a mixed blessing and curse. The portal had responded to her touch back in the vault, but in a bad way. When it hit the ground, she and the entire contents of the mountain were transported to this...place. She didn't know if she was even in the same constellation as before. The stars in the night sky couldn't tell her a damned thing, but then she was just found of looking at them, not studying them. Still she'd had classes...

She ducked low under one of the more lively branches. She swore that some of the trees actually reached for her. Which is another reason she wanted Pasha along. Security. And...something else. Friendship? Couldn't really get friendship from a blade that was twice as old as her father. Just too out of touch. Pasha had been the blade her grandfather forged when he was a youngster. He'd been a master swordsman and blacksmith. Of course, back then, you almost had to be. She sighed. Thinking of her grandfather again. Vashanna skipped lightly around a patch of quicksand and worked her way up the remaining hill to the blast site.

She stopped at the top of the hill and looked at what her curiosity wrought below her. The blast pattern had fanned out in the shape of a butterfly. Which means that the single force of the blast was somewhere in the air above where she'd been. A natural phenomenon that made her shake her head every time she saw it. The blast centered on a spot on the next hillside, while the wings fanned out from there. Almost a mile across, highlighted by the mountains looming behind them. These foothills also led to a huge swamp to the north that held some good hunting. The woods also kept her fed. When she had the stomach to eat. A painful knot curled in her again and she took a breath.

-Lady Naelyn, your father would want you to gain your strength and find a way to overcome this.-

He was right, of course. And if anyone knew Vashanna's father, it was hunk of metal she currently had resting against her back between her shoulder blades. Maybe a bra wasn't such a bad idea...At least until she got used to the chafing. Vashanna sighed as she made her way to the site. She'd dragged so many things back to her little cabin. Scrolls, certainly. Anything that ran on batteries. She had electricity for a time because of the small generator she was able to scrounge, but it didn't last long since she had no gas. She searched for the fragment of scroll she'd read to get here and couldn't find any trace, except for the odd scorched feeling in her hands for a couple days after the event. Her guess was that it annihilated itself after the transfer. It was a good way to keep the knowledge in the clan. Destroy the copies.

Well, further research into the spell proved to shove even more guilt her way. The fourth scroll had instructions for use near the end. She scowled at this reminder of her curiosity. Why not put the damned things near the beginning. She huffed as she made her way across the valley floor and to the first of the gravesites. She sighed and paused at each of the graves long enough to give the correct answer of thanks and prayer before moving on. The bottom of the small valley was rife with quicksand pits, obviously due to the proximity to the swamp in the north and the sea to the west. She hadn't wanted to disrespect her elders (at least the ones that had died) or the passed on members of her family like that, but saw no other choice. She HAD to utilize them. The members of her immediate family, her mother and father and passed-on relatives, she properly buried. Little wooden markers. Three equal wooden sticks, slanted toward a single point. A pyramid. Each stick symbolizing the single most important thing to the elves. Family. Mother, Father and Child, each separate in the beginning, but soon coming to a unified point, a unified soul. If she'd had enough time, she would have made a tree marker instead, but the scavengers were beginning to flock and she had to move fast. A tree marker. She smirked. Even modern elves never got a tree marker. The three of the pyramid converges with three separate other pyramids and on ad infinitum. It was to show that, not matter how separate they all were, they're still elves. They're still all family.

She stepped across the last quicksand pit and scowled as it bubbled slightly back at her. In order to bury everyone before they'd be picked to pieces, she had to inter the non-family members in the pits. They sank quickly and made little fuss about their new accommodations. She didn't think they'd mind. Then she found the two clan elders that had been at the mountain when she transferred. With their 'help', the scavengers stayed away long enough for her to complete the burials. It still took her almost three whole days. Three days for the burial. Five days to figure out and build the cabin. The rest of the time translating. Two weeks had gone quickly. Once the bodies had been cleared away, the wreck site looked like little more than the devastation of a tornado. The critters and scavengers didn't help, either, as they were fond of dragging stuff off. At one end, she'd constructed a large white tent, made from two tarps she'd found near the wrecked vehicles. Apparently, the Rolls and the Olds didn't take too kindly to being dropped from fifteen stories up. Stuff burned for the first couple days, but soon went out and everything had been quiet again. Lifting up the tent flap, she went into her storeroom.

"Time to open up another crate, Pasha," she said as she took the sword out.

-Please, Mistress,- he pleaded, -It's undignified to use me in such a manner.-

"Quit whining Pasha," she sighed wearily, "We're in this for survival."

-I think you've been watching too much television...-

He grumbled more, but she paid it no mind. She couldn't find the crowbar, after all. She pried open the crate and swung Pasha back into his scabbard as she looked in the crate. More energy bars. Gifts from the endorsement deal her brother had made with an American company. He had no need for them all and the rest of the family had shunned them as being unnatural. Vashanna couldn't understand the fuss, but then, she also liked Gatorade. One of the elders had called it unfit for elf consumption, never mind she'd been drinking it for ages. So she'd ignored them and did it anyway. She picked up one of the boxes of bars and hefted it under one arm. She turned and thought for a second. Vashanna exited the tent and made her way to the next tent, which formerly covered the Piper Cub. It was broken too, but had one wing sticking straight in the air, which made for a huge space under the canopy of the tent. It smelled funny, but it was dry, so she stored all her other things there. She set the box down and rummaged in what used to be her closet and found a large duffel bag. She huffed at herself for not thinking of it weeks ago. She stuffed the box of bars in the duffel and paused before grabbing a handful of clothes...As well as a bra...Or two...

The days wore on for Vashanna. She'd not seen another living soul and judging from the lack of light pollution in the air at night, she'd bet that she was miles, if not further away from the nearest city. But...

She set the scroll down and turned her chair to look out the front door. Could the city that she finds, assuming she did find one, have elves in it? Elves like her? She didn't know. It was an elven transport spell, so it most likely would take the user to someplace the elves knew about. Oddly enough, she knew why she was the only one that made it through the portal alive. The spell that she cast was used in the transport of whole nations of elves. Entire clans would whoosh away in one single stroke. So, in order to conserve magical energy, the living beings in transport couldn't be beyond a certain radius from the epicenter. Everything else was subjected to the rigors and death that flowed freely in the dimensional stream. Vashanna rubbed her eyes. She'd been at it for almost two and a half weeks and she was starting to see things. Like, out beyond the bushes near her front door, she could have sworn there was a pair of eyes watching her.

"Pasha?"

The sword stirred lazily in her mind. He had been asleep. A chill ran through her as she saw those eyes close and open again.

"Pasha," she said clearly, "Wake up. We have an intruder."

Pasha snapped to attention in her mind, causing her to wince slightly. When she looked for the eyes again, they were gone.

-Mistress?-

What could she say?

"Nevermind Pasha," she sighed, "I think I'm working at this too hard. I'm beginning to see things."

-Spin me up and I'll keep guard, ma'am.-

She didn't like to do that. Pasha needed his rest too, but she saw no other choice. She got up and walked into the 'livingroom'. She took Pasha from his scabbard and set him, point down, near the entrance to the second room. That way, he could keep watch on both at once.

-Perhaps a nap, Mistress?-

She smiled slightly at the idea. Imagine, a catnap in the middle of the day...Though, she could work longer. She shook her head and muttered the simple spell her grandfather taught her. Pasha's hilt began to rotate. It whirred faster until it was just a blur. There was a crackle of magic along the length of the blade and Pasha's personality image blurred to life. Vashanna looked at her handiwork and yawned. Perhaps a nap would be a good idea. She mumbled a thanks to Pasha as she lay down on her bed. The rest would do her good...

Pasha smiled slightly and turned his attention back towards the things in the garden. Oh yes, they were there. But then, what were they and were they friendly or not...Those were the questions...

"Damned rain," Vashanna muttered as she pounded another board into place.

-This structure was never watertight to begin with, Lady Naelyn.-

"Shut up Pasha"

-Yes, ma'am.-

She scowled as she pounded another nail into place. The rain had come at the end of the previous week and hadn't stopped once since. Worse yet, they'd been dripping on the scrolls and that was intolerable.

-Mistress?-

"Pasha."

-I was just curious as to where you'd learn to build...Well, things...-

"I watched the Discovery channel..."

-Oh.-

She had no idea how to build a roof, though, so she'd built one wall higher than the other and had thought that would be the perfect solution to her problem. It still leaked. The basic structure seemed sound, it just her roof that needed lots of work.

"Vatheryth el..."

She held a shaking hand up to her forehead. Yup. Fever. That would account for the chills and the feeling of burning all over. The scroll on the desk in front of her blurred in and out of her vision. She propped a hand against the table to keep from pitched over. Unfortunately, her supplies were all back at the site and she was in condition to travel. She tried to stand, but her legs thought better of it and she eased back into her chair. Waves of nausea rippled through her as bile rose to greet the back of her throat. Maybe if she were sick, it'd make her feel better? Nah. It'd most likely just attract the flies. Her head pounded to the beat of the rain outside. A rain that just seemed to go on. She was so lost and confused. She didn't want to be a survivor anymore. She didn't even *like* that show. She sniffled once and sighed. She got up from her place at the desk and walked to her bed.

-Lady Naelyn, I know you're not feeling well, but I think this might help. Try to chant after me.-

Pasha chanted softly in her mind. It was a beautiful song, almost a lullaby as she crawled under her covers.

-Please Vashanna, try...Don't leave me here...-

The pleading in the voice was something new to her. She opened her weary eyes and stared at the image from the sword that spun near the doorway. He had his little hands up in a gesture of prayer. She nodded slightly and lay back. He began to chant again and she responded. She could feel the old magics work through her and she knew what he was doing. Pasha was making her recite a self- healing spell. She smiled slightly as they finished. Before sleep took her, she wondered if she'd ever get the chance to write all these neat things down. Spells...and such...

Her vision was fuzzy. Blurred by something, some liquid, in her eyes. She reached a hand up to her forehead and winced at the pain. It was blood. Pasha wanted to fight. He screamed about the thrill of carving into a person. She looked across the dark room at the man standing there. A human, about six foot, maybe less and thin. All dressed in black. His eyes burned with an inhuman blackness. Her heart leapt at the sight. This man...She loved this man...She...Yet it was necessary that he die. She had to kill him. But why? He had been so kind to her. Pasha screamed commands to fight from within. What the Hell was he talking about? She didn't even really know how to properly use the sword...she was...holding...

"Vashanna..." a voice cried out in the darkness.

It was the man, but it wasn't him...More blood poured into her eyes.

"I...love you..." the man said.

Vashanna screamed, knowing the man would die and she leapt forward. She lashed out with Pasha and the ceiling looked really strange. She was shocked at how lousy her ceiling looked from the inside. She'd have to fix that.

-Lady Naelyn!- Pasha exclaimed, -You're finally awake! Thank God! I was wondering if you'd ever wake up...-

Pasha continued to blubber on. Vashanna reached up to her forehead, but it was just slightly damp. The fever most likely broke while she was asleep. That was good. No blood or gaping wound. That was good too. A couple more days bed rest and she'd be okay. The dream. It was almost the same dream she'd been having since coming to this place.

"Pasha?" she asked meekly, "How long was I out?"

-Almost an entire week, my lady!-

Vashanna lay still in bed for a moment as Pasha rambled on in her head. A warm breeze blew in off the ocean and into the cabin. She smiled slightly at the feeling. It was calm and clean. It smelled good. Not like ocean at all, but like the summer breezes after a good rain. She shoved the bad memories out of her mind. Thinking about them now would do no good for her health. Instead, she focused on her childhood. Her memories of her grandfather taking her sailing on the Adriatic...She smiled again and closed her eyes.

"Pasha, could you try to tone it down a little...I'll need a couple more days bed rest, then I'll be fine..."

-Yes, my lady.-

"Any visitors?"

-No, my lady.-

"Pasha?"

-Yes?-

"You used my name once before since coming here," she said as sleep began to take her again, "Please use it from now on."

-Yes...Vashanna...-

"Thanks..."

Pasha spun quietly in the sand underneath the lone palm. It seemed kind of out of place in the grand scheme of the rest of the forest. Probably washed up from further south. Vashanna had come out of her sickness four days ago and hadn't looked at a single scroll in the meantime. Pasha sighed in the heat. Since the storms had cleared, the weather had warmed. Wonderful sea breezes blew in and Pasha wondered if it was this reason that she'd stopped her research. Almost like she was resigned to live here. It wasn't bad as far as that went. They'd gone hunting the day she awoke and she caught numerous critters, some of which she liked, some she didn't, but the belch that issued from her at the end of the meal certainly sounded satisfied. Much of what was left from the mountain had either been picked apart by scavengers or taken as nesting material by small critters, birds and such. Vashanna had brought all the clothes she could gather to the cabin before she got ill.

Vashanna appeared in the surf and Pasha blushed. At least his image blushed. One of the things she'd recently obtained (before the transfer, that is) was a swimsuit. Pasha wondered how anyone could swim in so little and still be decent. Certainly times had changed since his day...Or had it? He remembered his early days and how the elders back then would speak of the cults. The religious cults of the Rome certainly knew how to party, so perhaps this was just the next phase of that. Still the little two- piece looked *awfully* good on her. She strutted slowly from the water, letting the sun caress every inch of her...

Pasha sighed out heavily. It'd been over a thousand years since he'd felt *anything*, much less the feelings that the youngest and, sadly, last Naelyn, brought out in him. He'd been bound never to speak about how the swords like him and others were actually made, but while Pasha was still alive, suffice to say he wasn't a very nice man. Over the years, Pasha had grown to love life and the living and found that love returned. He honestly didn't think he *could* actually love anyone, but seeing Vashanna lithely stroll to the base of the palm, to the sand next to him, he desperately wished he might. She sat at the base of the palm and stretched her arms above her head. There was straw hat on the ground next to Pasha and she stuffed it, with a contented sigh, on her head. Unfortunately for Pasha, her position at the palm gave him a perfect 'top-down' view.

-Vashanna...-

"If you're gonna lecture me about my bikini," she purred, "You're a little late."

-No, I just worry that trouble might come along,- he said as he tried to ignore the sights she offered him, -What about the large, bird-creatures we saw yesterday?-

She thought for a moment. They were strange. Scary as Hell, too. She'd just crested the hill on a return trip from the site when she heard a noise behind her. Her long ears and her elven hearing made out that it was on the far side of the valley, but coming closer. She dropped herself to the other side of the hill and poked her head over the top to watch. A family, if such could be called, of these creatures came wandering out of the forest. The largest was absolutely huge. About nine foot at the shoulder and the smallest measured no greater than a rooster. All had dirty, black feathers draped around what looked like a reptilian frame. An oversized beak-mouth protruded from the head. The largest threw up a cackle into the clear air, which was answered by the rest of the family. Vashanna scowled as she could see a huge row of sharp teeth in the beak of the largest. Nasty critters.

The critters snuck around the site for a bit before heading out the other side. She was interested in the little ones though, as they seemed to be able to somehow sniff the air and track by scent. A cold chill ran through her as a larger critter traced her path around the site perfectly, even stopping where she stopped and for exactly as much time. But none of them would go near the graves, even the ones in the quicksand. It was just luck, then, that her path back led through the graves. She'd lost them by accident and that scared her.

She huffed and pushed a few errant strands back into place underneath the straw hat.

"We'll have to deal with them when they find us," she said slowly, "And I'm fairly certain they *will* find us."

-That's what I was afraid you were going to say,- he replied, -Is that why you've given up translating? Because you're trying to be mentally prepared for a fight?-

Something caught her eye a little further north. Toward the rocky crags. She stood and brushed the sand from her.

"You're sweet, my mentor," she smiled a half-smile at him, "But I've haven't given up translating. I just figured that, being stuck here, I may as well take my time."

It twinkled in the bright light of the noonday sun.

-I suppose you *could* use a break...You've been doing it almost constantly since we arrived. Do you realize that was almost two months ago?-

She picked Pasha's scabbard from its place in a lower branch of the tree. The thing in the distance glittered like a star, rocking in time with the waves.

"Surely not two whole months, Pasha," she chided softly as she stopped his spin, "Do you see that glitter in the distance? What do you think it could be?"

-I don't know...- he sighed, -But, I suppose you're gonna check it out?-

She stopped and held Pasha up.

"Did you just say, 'gonna'?"

There was a slight silence and Vashanna thought that his blade might be turning red. Must be the light.

-You have an,- he searched for the right word, -Effect on me, Vashanna.-

"Aww..." she purred back as she slipped him in his scabbard, "That's sweet, Pasha."

She slung the scabbard over her shoulder and readjusted her hat. Setting out at a leisurely pace, Pasha silently wished nothing else than to be a scabbard as it smacked lightly against Vashanna's tight thigh. Tight BARE thigh. Pasha would have shivered, if he could.

There was a barrel out among the rocky parts. Vashanna winced slightly as she made her way to it. Barrels meant a civilization that could *make* barrels. Possibly even seafaring. It was a start. There was a man in the barrel. A human man. He looked horrible and Vashanna thought he was dead. He was ghostly pale, as white as Vashanna's hair. His thick beard scraggly from obvious starvation, his hair matted in places and so out of order that she didn't want to think about what he'd been through. Then she smelled him and abruptly fed the nearby fish. The smell was so powerful. Nothing compared to the stench. She wiped her mouth and absently tried to establish some order over the nasal overload. Vashanna pulled Pasha from his scabbard and poked at the man gently, so as not to harm him.

-Vashanna, he's wearing something.-

Curiosity once more took over. She took a deep breath and held it as she looked over the edge of the barrel. There was a large, silver key hanging from a chain around his neck and Vashanna sighed out as she saw his chest rising and falling, however shallow. He was alive. She also found that breathing through her mouth left her with a funny taste on her tongue, so she just quit trying and endured it.

-Um...- a new voice popped into her head, -Hello? Please don't hurt this guy...He's my ticket outta here...-

-Where the Hell is THAT coming from?- Pasha gasped.

Vashanna followed a hunch and gingerly stepped around the beaten oak barrel. Sure enough, the voice was coming from a hilt that was protruding from the side of the barrel. Vashanna recognized the craftsmanship immediately. It was elven! She grabbed the hilt and pulled. After several more attempts, the dagger came free into the sunlight.

-Wow, that's bright,- the dagger said, -Simon must be right about being south of New Toren.-

"Who are you?" Vashanna asked.

As if seeing her for the first time, the dagger whistled slightly in her mind.

-Damn, you're a hottie!-

-EXCUSE ME!- Pasha shouted, -You WILL respect the Lady Vashanna Naelyn!-

-Don't get your panties in a bunch, grandpa. I was just complementing the Lady here on the recovery of my current master, Simon Carter,- the dagger shot back, -Of course, unless he's dead...-

"He's alive."

-Then, and I'll ask only because you're such a knockout, will you please help him,- the dagger pleaded, -We've been through some really hard times and he was pretty badly injured last night. He, uh, accidentally fell against me. Hurt his leg.-

Vashanna poured over the facts. This dagger, certainly more crude a manufacture, but in no way diminished by that, was still elven. And, if an elven artifact claimed this man as master, then he couldn't be all bad.

-At first,- Pasha began, -I'd say let the heathen die. But this relic_-

-Yeaaaaaaaah, relic *this* pal!-

-This *dagger* proclaimed the man, Simon, as his master,- Pasha tried to continue, -We must do what we can to help.-

"All right, Pasha, it'll be rough dragging him back to the cabin, so I might as well get started," Vashanna held them both aloft, "But I hear a peep out of either one of you, it'll go very hard. Understand?"

-Yes, ma'am!- they both proclaimed.

Joshua "Gargoyle" Trujillo "Stone Cold Protector of the Righteous"

Wanna take a ride?

Moving fast to beat the devil, Arms too short to box with God.

Time counts and keeps countin'