Rebirth Read online

  Making a volcano is as simple as punching a hole into the ground, releasing some heat and pressure, and letting the world do what it does naturally. Stopping one involves trying to seal the pressure – while it’s being released – and to seal it strong enough to contain it. Imagine punching a nail into a propane tank – that’s easy enough to do. Now imagine trying to put a bandage over that hole while the air is leaking out. That’s not quite as easy to do. Now, imagine trying to put a bandage over that hole while the air leaking out is flaming, falling around you, and everything is burning!!

  If you can imagine that, then you can imagine the morning I had – all while mother sat and calmly drank tea on the practice field.

  By the time I’d sealed the volcano and cooled all the stray magma, I was mana-drained and exhausted. My knees were weak, and if De’Nara wouldn’t have been there for me to lean against, I don’t think I could’ve remained standing – much less stagger back home. De’Nara never said a word the whole way back, and I was too tired to ask what was on her mind. Since my room was still more-or-less destroyed, she led me to her chambers and I passed out on her bed the moment I flopped on it.

  I awoke the next morning to the sound of laughter. Looking around, both De’Nara and Le’Nara were in the room and they were comparing their respective gifts. There was a lot of ‘mine’s better’ and ‘nuh uh, mine is’, so I tried to stay asleep for the rest of my life. Unfortunately, women won’t allow something like that to happen.

  Le’Nara finally bounced over, hopped half across the bed and kissed me soundly. “Hey Mik! Mik! Mike! Mikey! Mikey-Mik! Yoo Hoo!!” She straddled my chest and started to rub her bottom back and forth against mine while she kissed up and down my cheek and neck. My damn man part betrayed me and stood firmly erect, at which point she giggled lightly and hopped up off the bed.

  “Good! You’re awake now!” Le’Nara laughed lightly and even De’Nara chuckled at seeing my flagpole at full mast.

  “Yeah. I’m awake.” I tried to act all nonchalant about the whole thing. “Whatcha need Lee?”

  “We wanted to know something. Which one of us do you love more? Me or Dee?” Le’Nara giggled lightly, and my heart cringed. What type of question is something like that to ask a guy?!

  “Umm…” My mind raced for an acceptable answer and I couldn’t find any. How can someone answer a question like that?

  “Uhh… I guess I’ll love whoever sits in my lap first this morning, the most for now.” I tried to make a joke to give me time to think of a better answer, but Le’Nara squealed, leaped upon the bed and straddled me in one swift motion, and then sat down firmly in an instant. My erect member was deep inside her womanhood, and my mind went blank at the sudden feeling that rushed up my groin and through my hips.

  “Ha!” She turned and stuck her tongue out at De’Nara, and I moaned feeling her body shift around my member as she twisted. “He loves me more, sis! He might be your champion, but he was my partner first!”

  I didn’t know what exactly the two of them were arguing over this early in the morning, and honestly, at the moment, I didn’t care. If Le’Nara was going to wiggle around while sitting on my erection, I wasn’t going to pay a lot of attention to other matters. I may have mother’s magic in me, but I was my father’s son also, and there was that part of my father‘s genes in her right now. With a grunt, I grabbed Le’Nara by the shoulders, pulled her down fully upon me, and then rolled over so I was on top.

  She was the second love of my life and was the second woman I ever made love to.

  All while De’Nara simply sat in the chair at her dresser and watched!

  When Le’Nara and I finished our romp together – and it really didn’t take me long since I was still tired from overusing my magic earlier – I rolled off her and she snuggled up to one arm and laid her head on my chest. Much to my surprise, De’Nara then climbed up into the bed and snuggled to my other side and laid her head on my chest also. I wrapped my arms around them both and wondered about just how damn strange this new world was in some things. I couldn’t imagine two sisters snuggling with the same guy back on Earth! There’d be bloodshed involved!

  “Is… Is this really OK?” I asked the both of them.

  “Is what OK?” Dee asked while Lee just nodded and made a little “Uh huh” type sound.

  “Me. Being here, with both of you. You two aren’t going to ax murder me later or neuter me or something are you?”

  De’Nara leaned up and kissed me lightly across the lips before laughing slightly. Le’Nara was simply relaxing and looked like she might be going off to sleep. I wonder how long she’d been here and kept watch over me last night while I slept?

  “It’s fine,” De’Nara told me. “Why should I object to you and sis having a moment of passion together? I’m already married if you remember. Can I really object to my lover on the side, having a lover on the side?”

  “Umm…” I’ve learned that women can object to anything they feel like objecting to – whether the standards are equal or not. Just because she could have a lover on the side, that didn’t mean a woman would accept her lover having another! At least, not on Earth it didn’t.

  Seeing my doubting expression, De’Nara simply laughed and then leaned up and kissed me again. “Perhaps it’s simply a trait of the royal family of Andor, but it truly doesn’t bother me at all. From an early age, I knew that I was likely going to be married off and having children for a man I didn’t care for. My family would find me a husband for political reasons; not love. I would neither love him; nor would he love me. We’d simply do the duties that we were expected to do for the betterment of our nations and families.

  “I knew the chances were great that the man I married would have dozens of maids share his bed. Perhaps even several mistresses or concubines. Our land passes rulership down amongst the female bloodline for a reason – males can simply procreate with too many females and muddle the inheritance process – so I’ve always known my ‘mate’ would be unfaithful.

  “And, as such, it doesn’t bother me at all to see you with another. The fact that it’s my sister you’re with does nothing to harden my heart. I love you both, and I’m simply glad that you’ve found a partner to share your hearts with. What is there to be jealous over?

  “Jealously is for the common classes,” De’Nara told me while nibbling lightly on my ear. “When the fate of a nation could be on the line, one learns not to indulge such feelings. Enjoy my sister as much as you want. In fact, if you want her, I could have her married to you. Or even shackled and made yours as a slave, if you wished. Mother wouldn’t object; it simply being a tie which would draw the House of Andor and the House of Dancing Flames closer together.”

  For a few moments, I let myself indulge in the fantasy of Le’Nara being shackled and being my slave to teach and train – and then I shook my head and dismissed the thought. With her aversion to authority, that’d probably be the worst thing possible. If someone were to make Le’Nara their slave, she’d end up being the one to break and train them in the long run, I think!

  “I think I’ll pass,” I told her honestly. I wasn’t prepared for marriage, and the idea of Le’Nara even being anyone’s slave was just preposterous. I could imagine falling whoever tried to enslave her falling out a window and then bouncing repeatedly like a rocket-powered basketball. “We’re partners, and you don’t try to shackle your partner.”

  De’Nara just nodded slightly as she leaned and nibbled on my chest gently. “And, are you still my Champion?”

  “I am,” I told her simply.

  “Then there’s no problem. You’re my Champion. Her partner. We both desire the warmth of your embrace, and neither of us was raised or allowed to be singularly possessive. Quit worrying, silly boy, and enjoy while you can.

  “Life will see us walking separate roads soon enough.”

  She’s right. Life will see us walking separate roads soon. De’Nara and Le’Nara are both going to be traveling to the kingdom
of Andor, and my destination is the school in Gondor. Fate will pull us apart soon enough.

  But for today, we ended up all entangled together many times…

  Parting Ways

  The next month was a period of warm embraces amongst all three of us, and we all ended up staying with De’Nara in her room. My nights were warm and passionate, and I drifted off into a peaceful slumber, with one of the girls held tightly with each arm. My nights were heavenly bliss.

  My days were hell.

  For some reason, ships don’t stay docked near an island where a volcano erupts up out of the ground. Our ride had sailed away, and we’d all missed our ship. The rules for the merchants only allows them to dock once a month to deliver merchandise or travels to and from the island, so we were stranded until the next month’s trade-day.

  And, while we were stuck on the island, Mother put us to work fixing the things we broke. We had to rebuild Le’Nara’s room. Mend furniture. Fix windows. Clean, repaint, and repair every little crack in the rooms and all the contents in them – which, with magic really didn’t take that long.

  And then, we had to fix the island. The forest had to be regrown. Mother thought a bare ash-covered mountain sticking up in the center of the island was ugly and tacky. I had to shape stone steps up the outside of it and then build a spiraling stairway down on the inside of it. De’Nara and Le’Nara were put to work gathering seeds and growing trees and flowers up the outside of the volcanic mountain, and I had to create water and build pools and heat them with lava vents to create hot springs inside the bottom of the volcano!

  I’d broke mother’s isle by showing off and releasing a volcano, so she put us to work remodeling the volcano and turning it into a natural hot spring resort full of flowers, trees, and vines. At least we didn’t have to repopulate the animals – mother did that herself with summoning magic. De’Nara’s glade was unfortunately destroyed, and The Lady’s Bath replaced it.

  I woke up exhausted from my nightly passion with the girls, and from trying to help fulfill De’Nara’s request, and I went to sleep exhausted from my daily labors. The days blurred together in a haze, and I think I’d lost five kilos from the endless stress on my body. Never had I ever been so grateful to see a ship in my whole life!

  And, that feeling of gratitude lasted right up until the point when we left the dock.

  I’d trained myself in earth magic and fire magic, first and foremost. Air magic came second, and water magic a distant third. I’d attuned myself over the last fifteen years of life so that I could feel every flow and ebb of energy across the forest, and even most of the island proper. When we left the dock, I lost my connection to the energy that I’d always attuned myself to; the damn ship bounced and flopped up and down like a piston in and engine; and I was ill.

  Violently ill.

  And, since it was a problem with my magic not finding the earth and fire it expected, I never got better. I was thinking the ship ride would give me a month to enjoy some relaxed time with the girls, but it didn’t.

  I can officially say I hate ships. I hate the ocean. I hate leaving land!

  And my idiot parents live on an island that requires me to take a month long trip across hell to visit them!!

  If I thought I was grateful to get on the ship to rest, I was a thousand times more grateful when I finally managed to get off it. Everyone looked at me oddly when I fell off the side and down to the beach, but I didn’t care. I simply wanted to kiss the warm dirt and let it know that I’d never cheat on it again! If I need to visit mother in the future, I’m going to write her a letter, let it make the damn trip across the ocean, and then she can come pick me up like she did when she gave me my merchant’s card so many years ago!

  The land we settled in was the small ocean kingdom of Tameriel, and we spent a few days at an inn together to say our final goodbyes. Andor was to the north of us, Gondor was to the south. We all promised to write and send messages to keep in touch, and then we went our separate ways. De’Nara and Le’Nara boarded a carriage and rode off, but I really wasn’t in any hurry so I simply walked the roads.

  At first, the roads were full of people traveling back and forth near the city, but then things settled down and it was nothing more than walk, walk, walk, and look at the forest. I saw some wildlife from time to time (and it was tasty), but Tameriel is a land where the one real cities are along the coast. Roads were built so travelers and traders from the other lands could get to the ocean, but the majority of the place was deserted and boring.

  I expected an adventure of some sort while heading to Gondor, but all I did was wear blisters on my feet. Dull, dull, dull…

  OH HELL!

  Was I starting to sound like that Flipping Fool that caused all this mess?!

  Once I started to think like that, I immediately changed my attitude. No one was around to see me. I was alone in the wilderness. The sun was out, it was a bright and beautiful day, and I was surrounded by nature. Deciding to indulge my whimsy, I stripped myself naked, put all my things in my traveling pack, tied it to the end of a long stick like a traveling hobo’s bundle, and skipped along down the road while whistling lightly.

  And, that’s when I encountered my first goblins in this world!

  A group of eight little green men shuffled out of the woods and surrounded me, spears pointing in my direction. They were grunting and hooting, and arguing amongst themselves in a language I didn’t recognize. I figured I could defend myself with my magic if I needed to, so I thought I’d diffuse the situation by being friendly and trying to talk to them first.

  “Hi!” I told them enthusiastically while holding my arms up in the air to show I had no weapon at the moment. Surely, a naked guy couldn’t seem threatening to a goblin! “I’m Michael. It’s a pleasure to meet all of you.” I half-waved at them while my arm was up, and the group began to chatter wildly amongst themselves.

  Since it didn’t seem they were going to attack me right off the bat, I flopped down, and sat cross-legged on the ground and opened up my pack slowly, so as to not frighten them. Gently, I reached inside, pulled out an apple, and took a bite of it to show it was good, and then I held it out to offer it to the goblins. I had plenty of food, and with my magic, I could always grow a tree and make more if I needed it. I didn’t mind sharing.

  The group was gathering up together in a small circle now and chattering wildly to each other. Since it didn’t seem they were going to take the apple, I went ahead and began to eat it. I’d never seen creatures like these before, and I found the whole experience to be fascinating.

  “So what are you guys talking about?” I asked them. “It doesn’t seem like you’re going to kill me or anything. Am I going to be kidnapped? Taken to your cave to be held ransom, or made to work in some mine? I have a little time before I have to be at school, so I don’t mind really. I’ve never seen a goblin cave before, so it might be interesting to go.”

  The more I talked and ate my apple, the more excited they got. Figuring they were frightened of me – after all, as a healthy male I am almost twice their size – I finally tossed the apple core away and sat my sack-on-a-stick on the ground. I turned my back towards them and crossed my arms behind my back. “Here you go,” I said reasonably, “this should make it easy for you to tie me up and kidnap me if you want. It’ll be fine.”

  The sounds of something tinkling on the ground made me turn around and look back over my shoulder. The goblins were all running off into the forest, and they’d tossed several small copper and silver coins on the ground between us.

  I don’t know what the heck that was all about! My first time meeting a goblin party and they didn’t attack me, or anything. I thought folks said they were dangerous! They were friendly enough to me… they even left me a parting gift of some coin before they left.

  After that, I was baffled by the goblin’s actions for the next week or so as I traveled the road. I’d skip along and sing and try and be friendly whenever I saw them, but they truly
were a skittish race. I never put any clothes or armor on, didn’t carry any weapon, and I didn’t even use any magic for anything while they were around. I tried my best to be open, friendly, and as harmless as possible so they wouldn’t be scared – but I never could get them to have a conversation with me.

  Every morning they showed up and tossed a few coin to me, along with some fruit or vegetables. Every night they’d do the same. But each time they’d skitter, yelp, and run away if I even looked towards them much. I accidently sneezed once, and one of the goblins fainted, and its friends dragged it off by its ankles.

  If they’re supposed to be dangerous or frightening, I just don’t see it.

  After passing what I assume was the goblin territory; they quit bringing me gifts after that week’s journey; I was stuck alone on the road with the boredom once again. I was going to take my time heading to the school, but honestly, all the endless quiet out here was getting to me. I liked the forest back home – but it was a forest on my terms and only in short stretches of time. Here, I was stuck alone with mother nature for day after night after day after night….

  So I cheated.

  I can’t travel like Mother can, but I can still make decent time when I feel like it. I used my magic to help shape the ground beneath my feet, and I simply slid it across the cobblestone road like a sled across the ice. Once I’d started sliding, it was a simple matter to keep increasing the wind behind me for thrust, and I started to build up phenomenal amounts of speed. At first, it was a little difficult to control, but I quickly learned to use my magic to sense the difference in the grass and cobblestone road before me, and then I could really unwind.

  The wind whistled as I rushed down the road in a blur, and I was reminded of the way TV shows made things look from the perspective of being inside a race car. I don’t know how quick I was going, but the world was zipping past in a blur as I rocketed myself along for several hours.