War of Djinn and Men Part 1.

As the others get some rest, I sit in the living room alone, just past midnight, on the floor in front of the fire. With a newfound sense of motivation to help Angela and the slaves of her city, I try again to astro-project and speak to Hugh. I feel like too much time is passing and I'm getting nowhere. But I stop thinking of all these intrusive thoughts and focus on breathing. Box breathing, inhaling for 4 seconds and holding for four seconds. Exhale for four seconds and repeat. I focus harder, The all white plane is where I need to go. I don’t pay attention to time, just breathing and thinking of the plane I need to be on. Then I see a single speck of light in my closed eyes.

“I'm not there yet, focus on box breathing and getting to Hugh...” I think to myself, forcing myself to try harder. But a tingle in the back of my eyes tells me something is new. I keep focusing on what I'm doing and the speck of what grows. Then, before I know it or understand how. I'm there! The all-white plane Hugh brought me to, to help me understand. There is no feeling here, no floor. You simply stand upright here. And it is totally devoid of all definition...I call out to him “Hugh! I'm here. I need help! Hugh!?”

“We Djinn don’t have an individual name. But, Hugh... I like this name very much, Mark.” I look behind me and there in front of me is... another me. The Djinn looked like me while he was dying, and now. Hès a skinny me with a long mustache and wearing a tunic. He legitimately has an imperial mustache and it’s the only thing I can focus on. “Nice flavor savor buddy.” He stops and touches his mustache under his nose. “Oh yes! We play with our appearance from time to time. And returning home has been rather dull compared to my travels.”

“You're here which means you are growing spiritually, but what troubles you? The girl? The monsters you may face?” “How in the hell could you know that, Hugh?” “I am still able to see glimpses of you from time to time. The armor is my connection to that world while I regain my powers to return to the fight, I know your people enjoy a level of privacy. But this is a most urgent time, I can't just sit idly by.” I shake my head. “No Hugh, that's all fine. But the girl saw something eating servants...” He nods. “Yes, With the Fallen Djinn growing stronger. Their powers entice other creatures to expand and procreate. You will find more and more of them soon enough. The inverse reaction of this, many humans will naturally develop with these creatures being close to them. It is a basic cause and effect, even if you find a way to level this scale of good energy over dark energy. It will take decades to return to a more normal state.”

I sigh. “Ok, more evil stuff means more monsters. More monsters means humans gain more power, but humans don’t seem to appreciate those with this power...” With a slight grimace he shakes his head. “No, humanity will find a way to divide themselves and stop growing together. States, Politics, policies, religions, statis or color of skin. They will fear anything new or different because it's not normal in their eyes.”

I nod, a little peeved because I know he is right. “Fine, now this armor you gave me. How can I use it to fight monsters or Djinn?” I can see him pause as he thinks for a second, then he replies. “Well, if you can imagine it, it should be able to help you. There may be limitations, but the extent I could conjure from the armor was a club and a shield.” Dumbfounded, I look at the armor covering my hands. “A club? What limitations Hugh?”

With a grin he shrugs. “You'll have to find them out. Your soul powers the armor making you stronger than me now or as I was. At least we all hope you're stronger. And your people being able to make warfare, well it should be easier for you to make any weapon you need within reason, just focus and...”

I snap back to the living room with my three new members of my family staring intently at me. Angela clings to Aoife, who are roughly the same size. Timous looks at me questioningly, “Did you just...?”

I nod, “Let's get going.” We eat a quick breakfast of duck eggs and fruit, say our goodbyes and see you soon’s. And leave the home and start down the road to the small city. Walking slowly again due to Timous’ size, we talk about what Hugh said about the balance being off and restoring it. “It does make sense, it happened before when humans hunted the dragons and wyvern...” Timous tries to continue but we approach a band of loggers on the unpaved road. They look absolutely freaked out about the two of us and even Timous is confused about it. “How odd, usually they just avoid me if I walk the road.”

For the rest of the day, we continue down the path having similar instances with other people. And towards dusk we find a small set of woods and make a camp where we both relax and get some shut eye before heading out again. We remain cautious the whole time we are there, in case any humans think they are going to try to capture either of us. The looks we got were so uncomfortable, it made us feel like we were guilty of something we never did. Morning comes, we break down camp, and continue down the path for an hour or so. When we see a man showing or leading people how to work on a fence.

We get a little closer as the fence is directly on the path just before it forks in another direction. And the man and what looks like teenagers give us the same look. This time I stop and try harder to figure this out. I feel like I'm covered in blood, and everyone is just staring at me. “Mo.. move on you two, I don’t want any trouble for me and mine.” The man nervously stutters. Timous and I look at each other, trying to find out what people are so on edge over a man and leprechaun for. Suddenly Timous’s eyes go wide “Damn! All your armor! You stand out like a king covered in gold armor on a battlefield!” I look down and totally forgot I'm dull gold and over 6 feet tall. Timous takes his hat off and takes two steps forward to the man “We mean you no harm sir. We are hunting down man eaters in the cities. Do you know where we might find a wool weaver and mill?” The man points down the 3-way fork in the road 20 yards away. The opposite way we are headed. Timous gets a few coins from his pocket and reaches out to them, still 10 to 20 steps away. The man shakes his head and backs away, “No sir, we did you a kindness and ask you leave us be.”

He puts the coins away, nods his head and we head off to this wool weaver to apparently get me something to cloak myself. We pass noon and come across a very rundown sheep farm. The fence is run down and the barn... This thing looks like it's about to collapse under its own weight. We make our way to the barn hoping to find anyone. There are still sheep so it should be running. I hope. “Hello there? We seek some wool...” Timous calls out. We continue in the barn and finally hear a man. “Yes... One, Ahem! One moment I'm on the way.” An old man calls out while coughing. We wait and see this frail, skinny old man with a cane slowly walk to us. “How can I help you?” The man asks us as he trembles in place, and his cataract eyes simply gaze ahead.

“My taller friend here requires a cloak sir. Do you think you have one?” Timous asks.

“Hum, uhm, let's look here. Talls.... Hooded, or no?”

“Hooded please for warmth” “Timous, I haven't felt cold or warm since I've gotten the armor…” I kneel and he looks over and replies “I know boy, but the warmer ones will help you hide the armor on your head and draw less attention.”

“Buttons or pull over?” the man asks. “Whichever you grab first good man. No real color preference either.” Timous jovially replies. “Ah yes, just another moment...” The man says while unfolding his stocks and holding them up to my façade to see if it may be a good fit... “I used to be faster at this but I'm afraid age has bettered me!” The old man chuckles.

“Timous, his eyes and shakes... can you help him?” I ask, he looks at me dumbfounded. “Why do you ask?” “We may need a favor in the future. If we offer to ease his suffering at least. We might have an ally.” Timous looks at the man, examining his moves and cane. He shrugs his shoulders and gives a quiet “Eh.” The old man calls out “Come here tall friend. Let's try this.” He holds a wool cloak up for me to put on, I do so. And struggle to use the shiny metal clasps on it. “Sorry sir, it's too tight in the chest and it stops at my knees.” I let him know. He grabs the cloak by the chest and pulls them together. “Ah, I see... One more moment son.” We let him rummage through another table and he grabs a thick black cloak with a hood, and holds it up. I move right to him and try it on, the clasps are simple and not blingy. It fits just right and hangs low, only inches over the ground. I nod at Timous. “Good sir, your shakes and eyes. I am a healer; we can pay for the wool, but I'd like to try and help you if you like...”

“Oh, I'm an old man, you don’t need to waste your time here. I assume I'll pass in peace.” “Please old man, you don’t deserve to remain this way or get worse out here.” Timous persuades him just a little more. “Ok son, how can you help?” They talk about what the man has been through and when things got this bad. The old man is very polite and answers with no hesitation. But I wonder. “Does this guy have a family? What happens if he has no money for food and medicine? Would he starve?” Turns out Douglas is only 60, but he's been sick for years. His eyes started to “fog” 8 years ago. His wife died in childbirth, and he was alone.

“I have a few Ideas to help you. No cost, just us doing what's right sir.” Timous says. “Ok son, do your worst...” Douglas chimes back with a smile. “Let's have you sit in this clean hay while I work.” Timous says, looking at me. “Hang on, Douglas, let me give you a hand.” I say as I move to him wearing the cloak, he gave me. I get him over to the clean hay and sit him down. Timous starts working on potions to help the old man. Sun falls and the moon rises as Timous works hard on a salve to put in his eyes. I started a fire in the barn to keep the man work while Timous worked. “Now, Let's take a few sips of this... good. Now this one we will put a few drops under your tongue and simply hold it there. Let it dissipate on its own.” Timous keeps treating Douglas.” Now your eyes will take some time... We need this salve in your eyes, hold still.” He adds salve to the old man's eyes. “Oh, that’s really nice and warm. I can feel it all over, even the backs of my eyes.” “Good! No pain? Do you just feel warm?” Timous asks Douglas. “No, it feels very good.” “Good, we need to keep applying it for a bit. Just relax and we will keep you warm.

Douglas’ shakes lessened drastically by this time. Looks like Timous is on the right track to heal or at least relieve his symptoms. But he keeps applying salve to his eyes. Once all the made salve is gone, Timous says “Now you sleep with the salve in. Let’s get you to bed and start a fire. Do you mind if we stay?” “Oh please. Stay.” We get the old man to his feet and walk him to a small shack that is also very run down. Not as bad as the barn. But you can tell he’s had trouble keeping up here. We get a good fire to rumble and get Douglas to bed. And head back to the barn, for a little bit of rest.

By morning we eat a few more duck eggs and salted pork belly off a cast iron skillet. Which just so happens to fit perfectly in Timous’ pack. As we finish, we hear some footsteps approaching us. We watch the door intently waiting to see if it's Douglas. He comes into view moving more limberly, staring at us with brown eyes, with barely any haze to them. “How did you do this?” He asks us both. “Come sit sir, I'll make a bit of tea and we can chat.” Timous waves his hand, and he smiles at Douglas. We all sit and chat for hours about what had happened. Leading to this point. “Cut through that field and when you see my fence turn left. You'll hit the path again and save some time to get to the city. You boys come back any day you like. Please... I'll help however I can.” So, we pack up, say goodbye and head out on our way promising Douglas the chance to meet Aoife and Angela. We cut through his field and hang a left. He has dozens of sheep and goats on his property. We end up back on the path and almost half a day away from the man repairing the fence line. Which means just before night falls we will hit the city. As we enter the path again, I ask, “Hey buddy, when we get there. What do we do? Sneak around? Explore? Ask guards if they have any dead bodies hanging around?” He rolls his eyes “No Boy! We can put our heads together and wander around first. Looking for signs or see if people talk. If that fails, we confront the Governor or Mayor. It depends on which king they hold loyalty to.” I nod “Good, do we need to have our guard up for that?” He gives me a little side eye at my ignorance “You're no longer just human. You'll see the same hostility that I’d see from humans. ALWAYS have your guard up.”

We get to the city walls as the sun falls. As predicted. The walls are made of stones. Waist high and maybe a foot thick. But there are farms and houses outside the wall and the streets are rather busy. But I can tell people are watching Timous harder than I. So, I slow down and tell him, “Keep going. Lead the way. I'll watch your back.” I can see I'm at least a foot taller than the rest of the men here. But even with my hood on, More and more eyes follow my leprechaun friend. We find a small street vendor, tucked into a nook of a building. She's selling simple meats and freshly cooked fish. Timous and I pull up to her sushi bar style eatery and he gets her attention “Two orders of fish my dear.” The owner, “I don’t want any trouble from you or your friend here.” I bud in “We don’t want any either. We're just here to stop something that may be haunting near this city.”

The woman in her 20’s at worst, looks at me stunned. I see Timous looking at her then me, He rummages through his pockets. “2 gold bits for the fish, and 3 more for some water and anything you may know to lead us to whatever haunts this town...” She looks at his hand on the bar, “The fish is 2 silver each sir.” She looks eager but puzzled all at once. “Ah, but the knowledge you hold might help us save the lives of your people. And that’s worth my gold, child.” She reaches over the counter and grabs all the gold. She holds it and examines them all one by one and even bites one, examining the imprints her teeth leave. She tosses two large ladles of small fish into a walk, and they start searing, maybe frying from where I am. I just don't know. A few minutes later she puts them on something that resembles 2 baking sheets and adds a few pinches of seasonings to each. Walks them over to us and says, “Let me get you some water from the well.” “It's smelt. It’s a basic fish fry like back home...” I say to Timous.” Then dig in, he smiles. I start in on them right away while peaking at the well. She isn't talking to anyone, just getting water. We should be good, Timous started eating too.

She returns and hands us the water directly from a pitcher. She leans in our direction... “We’ve had a lot of murders in the last month or so. Almost one a day. Some of them look like they get dragged to the graveyard. All of them are missing limbs. Mostly legs. A few people on the outskirts had their homes ransacked and blood trails all over. But no bodies left.Those people are still missing. We are all scared, and people have been fleeing.” Another man sits on the other side of her kitchen and asks for the fish. She goes to help him. “What do you think, boss? Doesn’t sound like a lycanthrope or werewolf...” “Good boy! You’ve been paying attention. Now A vampire will drink his human all together, and this is too gruesome, too wreckless for them. I'm thinking a few ghouls.” I stop eating the smelt and look at him. "A few?” “Oh, absolutely one full grown human will feed a Ghoul for a day or two. One kill a day is too often... Someone's trying to feed a family.”

6 members of the guard approach us from our backs. “What's your business Leprechaun?” Out of the corner of my eye I see Timous getting scared and shutting down. I've seen it a dozen times.

I take my hood off and show the back of my head to them. It's covered in armor up to past where my hairline was on the top of my head. The guards take steps back as they gasp, and I turn “We heard you have a few man eaters here. We come to kill them for a bounty, unless you want to face them alone...” The guard thinks for a second then replies, “You should come with us... The governor will decide.” Timous nods at me but looks scared still, we follow the lead and 2 troops. The other 4 follow us closely. I leave my hood down for the people to see. And they all stare wondering who we are, what I am... We continue walking past a wooden gate with much more respectable defenses, 9-foot-tall give or take, and tightly woven together. I'm less impressed when I pass through and find it’s the governor's home and soldiers' quarters only. No room for civilians if they need help. My focus shifts when I see guards staring at us, walking towards what resembles a Viking longhouse. We enter a great room and go directly to the stairs where the governor sits on a random chair, nothing special.

The head guard approaches the governor as we stand at the stairs, they talk briefly, and he sends the guard away. “My guard says you two know of our little dilemma. How did you learn of this?”

I look at Timous and see he's more scared now. I remember the things he said humans tried to do to him, I don’t blame him. Now it's my time to talk. “Governor sir. My leprechaun friend here has helped me track man eaters. We kill them and show you the proof for a fee. And we only return to assist with other issues as they arrive, or when asked. We've already confirmed from the townsfolk it's likely you have Ghouls here and you have been reinforced, but it's been little help.” He gazes at me shocked like I know too much. “That’s accurate. My king is very displeased. I've lost a whole platoon of men in a month's time to the fighting of these things when we had been trying to inspect crypts and found some tunnels. Do you think you can really help?” “Have your men surround the graveyard and patrol the city, as much of it as possible. They show us the tunnels, we go and take care of them. Or, they panic and flee. We track them and hunt them And get you the proof, easy does it.” “My king has granted us 5,000 gold for this to be solved...” “That’s more than enough, we will settle the debt when we get you the proof.” He stops and stares at us. He suddenly calls out. “All able-bodied men to arms! Surround the graveyard and increase city patrols! Get them there now!” The head guard and his 6-man detail go to attention and the leader replies “Yes Governor!” We move with the 6 men to the crypt. On the way all the soldiers scurry to form up and get dressed.

We walk through the city just after dusk and we march to the graveyard. When we arrive, there are already 15 men guarding the crypt. We approach, the guard leader talks to them. And he tells us to call out as we are ready to leave. I nod and look at Timous, “You coming with buddy? I wouldn’t mind a hand here.” “Lead the way friend!” We enter the crypt, it’s a normal looking stone building. Except it has a man sized hole in it at the back. “Tell me again, when we get in there what should we look for?” We begin our entry into the tunnel and Timous illuminates a small jewel and hands it to me, then another for himself.

As we get closer to the hole inside the crypt, we will smell rotting flesh for sure. “They will reek of this smell. but of course, they den together and eat together. So, the main hall where they eat will also stink, we may need to trap them.” Timous whispers to me. We continue through the tunnel for maybe 15 minutes and find 2 burrows in the main tunnel. Timous lets me know they likely dig these to explore the town. So, we move on, and continue down the tunnel. I have enough space for the most part, but I still duck my head as the tunnel is not perfect everywhere. Finally, we smell rotting flesh getting more intense. And keep going down the tunnel for maybe 5 minutes, when we find a massive room, and a giant pile of blood covered bones illuminated by a few dozen candles. We look around and see 2 other tunnels in this main room. In the back left corner, there is a pile of blankets for beds, 1 big enough for 2 adults and the other looks s little smaller. So, we stand and look around ourselves, also listening for clues as well. There are several boulders all over the room with candles on them.

A few minutes pass and we can hear shuffling and talking down the tunnel to the right. Each of us take a corner by the tunnel we entered; except I blew out a few candles. To help hide us from them. As I sit in my corner, I undo the clasps to my cloak ready to take it off for the brawl to come. Then I remembered my last chat with Hugh. I never tried making a weapon! All that time walking and I was an idiot. All I have is untested armor, some Jiu Jitsu and Muay Thai knowledge. It's enough for a fight back home, but what about here? No time to wonder now they are getting louder; they are getting closer. They sound excited... They enter the main room with a body. 2 of them look relatively human but lay the body down and start stripping it. A third enters and in a raspy higher voice “All I'm saying is the dead ones have more tender meats, but sour organs. The fresh ones have tougher but juicy meats and sweet organs... Ugh more damn candles out.” It’s a girl ghoul and she's either full of food, or pregnant. The other two are men, still undressing the man.

The girl grabs a candle stick on a holder that was close to her and walks towards me to light the candles I blew out… She looks like she is rotting, like a corpse. “This is it. Time to make a clear difference for once. Here she comes...” I think to myself as she stops to start lighting candles; she looks left towards Timous! “Another damn set of candles...” I don’t let her finish. I grab her by her dull lifeless hair; grab the candle holder she's trying too light. I pull her closer to me into the darkness and before she can scream, I start using the candlestick on her head. As I'm beating her head as best I can, one of the ghouls stops prepping his meal to check on the woman. “Mother? Did you find more food?” He then chuckles and the other ghoul stops too. “Chelsea? Love?” The other says. The woman stops breathing, The other two look worried and cautiously approach. I pick the man who sounds like the father. He is next, he's even coming to the same place I snagged the woman.

As they continue the approach towards me. I remove the cloak fully. I grab the man and start punching his face. The boy goes flying across the room, that’s gotta be Timous using his magic. Just keep him off me buddy.Its all I need you to do. The man ghoul gets his hands on my arms, and he's able to pick me up, spin me and slam me into the wall of the room. It's mostly dirt but he's so much stronger than a normal man. Hès been eating well. He throws a punch at my head, The face of my armor slams over my face for the first time I can remember. He lands a good punch, and all it does is move my head. The son goes sailing again, headfirst into a boulder. Timous is using his telekinesis to throw large rocks at the son's head! It's time to step up my game. I'm locked in a grapple match with what I assume is the father ghoul. I think again that I should be able to make a weapon. I know what a Greek sword looks like. I own a few back home. I think hard on a Greek Xiphos sword.

And as I push the man off me, A bulge in my stomach forms. And travels to my right arm quickly. A golden sword just forms from the bulge into my hand. I made the weapon from nothing. The ghoul charges at me, I drop my sword hand low and send it from hip height to his head height. I take his left arm off cleanly. He lets out a raspy scream while using his good arm to hold that elbow of the arm I cut off. I raise my Xiphos, and swing cut his head clean off. I walk right to the boy, now trying to wake up from losing a game of dodge rock with Timous. I grab his leg and drag him from the rocks. As I lower the blade to take his head, he screams. “Well, that was some good old-fashioned fun, let's get their heads and leave this filth.” Timous exclaims exhausted. My face shield retracts again, “Find a sack for the heads, this is gross.” I look at the sword, think of how it formed and think about the process in reverse. The blade simply melts away into my hand. We gather the heads; I get my cloak on and make our trek out. It takes maybe 10 minutes; we are moving faster because we know the way.

We exit the mausoleum yelling, “Guards it’s us we’re coming out...” We exit and there are at least 10 archers and 12 guards ready to attack us, but they don’t. They get ordered to stand down.The guard commander looks at the bloody sack we have, he nods his head and asks us to follow him. And we march back to the governor through the city, under escort. The people look on, now in awe. The troops whisper. "Do you think they really did it?” What is that smell?”” Is he gold? What is he?” I leave all of it alone. And remain silent, now is not a time to gloat. It's time to start gaining allies and be a professional. We approach the governor's chair again. “Did you really finish this?” He asks. I hold the heads to the Guard commander, “Here’s my proof, we found 3. And brought 3 heads for you too. They have definitely been feeding on your people for a while. I would send platoons down there to understand where they tunneled and see if they were up to more.Id also seal those tunnels.” He stares as I speak, and the guard looks in the back and wretches from the scent and sight. The guard looks back and nods “Those are ghouls sir. They have kept their word.”

“So be it.” 3 guards bring 3 sacks filled with what I presume is gold. “If we should need you again?” I throw out “If you need us send a rider up and down the paths at least 3 days ride, with a white flag and sounding a horn or flute. We'll see them. We’ll talk to them or just come as needed.” The governor nods and says, “So be It friends, you have my thanks on behalf of my king and the people of Trier.” “One more thing sir. We have under our care a child who may be a witch from this city. Her name was Angela, she worked in your kitchen. We will be making her a man eater hunter as well. I'll give back a sack of gold, If I can get her freedom written out from you, and a promise that any others can come to us. Send a rider again to get our attention and we will collect whoever may be a witch.” He looks on at us questioningly. “You want to take in witches to make hunters?” He asks very questioningly. “We fear dark magic is on the rise... The only way to fight them is with more help.” He looks on incredulously for a few moments. “Scribe!” He called out...