As Kane and Callie entered the house, Eliza and Josie came running up the stairs with Cosette and Giana slowly following.

  “What was that!” Eliza said through tears.

  “A snagon,” Kane said as Eliza and Josie grabbed him, pressing their faces into his lower chest.

  “It’s gone now,” Callie said as Zeus started barking wildly.

  “HOW DARE YOU LEAVE ME IN HERE!!!!” Zeus screamed through barking, “BETRAYERS!”

  And with that, Zeus went into the bedroom into his kennel, pouting. Callie and Kane looked at each other in partial disbelief at the temper tantrum their dog just displayed. Eliza and Josie finally let go, though tears still streamed down Eliza’s face.

  “We are okay,” Kane told his daughter, trying to wipe away the tears and give some reassurance.

  “It wasn’t nice," Josie stated the obvious.

  “No, it was not,” Callie said, hugging her daughter.

  “Is Phillip going to be okay?” Eliza asked right before Phillip and Carlie walked in, quickly followed by Alexandrus.

  “My Lady! The indignity of shutting the door in my face!” Alexandrus exclaimed.

  “BALL!!!” They heard Zeus yell from the bedroom as the Gonthar family heard the familiar scratch of him trying to fly out of his kennel.

  “LET ME OUT!” Alexandrus screamed, stretching up to the screen door for the handle.

  Phillip gladly obliged, smiling as the scared creature scrambled through the open doorway, “Well, that is one way to keep it out of the house. Good boy, Zeus!”

  Callie just shook her head as Zeus let out a defeated, “Humph, I wanted to play,” and went back to his kennel.

  “How is the arm?” Kane said, looking down at Phillip’s left arm.

  “I could use a good Band-Aid and antibiotic," Phillip shrugged, turning his arm slightly so the green couldn’t be seen by anyone.

  “Dad?” Cosette let out a small cry as she helped Giana up the final step.

  Carlie grabbed Giana, and Phillip reached to hug Cosette.

  “We are okay,” Carlie soothed her youngest daughter.

  “Yeah, we are okay," Phillip said, gently but firmly hugged his oldest daughter.

  Josie had walked back over to the living room window and watched as the last of the snagon disappeared.

  “Strange, I don’t feel anything taking it away. It looks like what the fire does to a log,” Josie mumbled nearly silently to herself before turning back to her family and just watching. Josie liked to watch; she didn’t understand why people did what they did all the time. It didn’t seem logical to her, but she liked watching them anyway.

  “Well, should we call Stern?” Kane asked as Callie walked towards the bathroom. He assumed she was grabbing the medical kit.

  “Yeah, hopefully his trip has been less adventurous,” Phillip said, moving to sit at the kitchen table as Cosette and Eliza walked over to the couch.

  Eliza turned the TV on, seeing the familiar warning message from before scrolling across the screen. She let the message run through once, not seeing anything different, she switched back to Prime and turned on the documentary again.

  “Eliza, please turn it down a little, or you can go downstairs and watch in the playroom," Callie said, coming out of the bedroom with the medical kit and a shirt for Carlie.

  “No thanks, I want to stay up here," Eliza said, not taking her eyes off the TV.

  Callie just nodded, “They probably want to be where they can see us after what just happened. I wonder if they watched from the window,” Callie thought as she set the kit down on the kitchen table next to Phillip. She lightly tossed a shirt to Carlie, who didn’t say anything but put the shirt on with a slightly dazed look on her face. Callie gave a slight smile to her friend, trying to reassure her a little, and started looking for the antibiotic for Phillip.

  *ring*

  *ring*

  *ring*

  “NOT A GOOD TIME!” Stern screamed through the phone that Kane had put on speaker.

  *click*

  “Shit,” Kane and Phillip said in unison, looking up at each other.

  “Did you hear anything in the background?” Kane asked Phillip.

  “A squeal of tires,” Carlie said, putting a squirming Giana down.

  “What do we do now? Wait for him to call back?” Callie asked, grabbing Phillip’s left arm.

  “I’m going to try CURE WOUNDS again,” Callie said, looking up at Phillip.

  Phillip nodded slightly, clearly deep in thought.

  Callie opened up her menu.

  “Holy shit! Guys, look at your menus,” Callie said, stunned at what she saw.

  “I leveled up?! What does that mean?” Carlie asked.

  “I don’t know,” Callie said quietly as she tried to scroll away from the message. After a few seconds, the message went away on its own, leaving the usual welcome screen.

  She swiped to the right. Stunned at seeing now she was level two, and she had a weapon even though she hadn’t drawn it once during the fight or the encounter with Alexandrus.

  Callie moved to select the new options. To her surprise, the selection options were the same as before; she made sure to look twice, but there were no new options. She took a deep breath and clicked CURE WOUNDS. She would figure out her selections after she helped Phillip.

  “Shit!” Callie accidentally said out loud.

  “What?” Phillip asked, breaking his trance and looking down at his hand.

  “I can’t use CURE WOUNDS again. I need to rest before the system will let me,” Callie explained, looking defeated.

  “Well . . . . I guess I have to go at this without magic,” Phillip said, looking down at his arm.

  “I’m sorry, I’ll try again later," Callie said, grabbing the alcohol wipes from the kit.

  “No, if you can only use it once a day, I’m not in danger, save it for when we need it," Phillip said, wincing a little when the wipe touched the open gash.

  “None of us are out of danger anymore,” Carlie quietly said to the table.

  “No, but we will figure out how to keep the kids safe,” Kane said, looking like he had come out of a trance himself, “I choose ENSNARING STRIKE as my new spell, maybe now we can hold our enemies while we shoot at them.”

  “That’s a good plan,” Phillip said through gritted teeth as Callie put antibiotics on the gash and wrapped it gently. Phillip was glad he could feel the pain, but he still couldn’t feel or really move his hand.

  “That’s as good as I can do for now, sorry, Phillip,” Callie said, putting everything back in the medical kit she had used, then got up to throw away the rest.

  “It’s fine,” Phillip said, still feeling the pain in his hand, “Let’s give Stern an hour, we should all get something to eat and... well, I guess rest.”

  “Someone should keep watch, we don’t know how many more of those things are out there,” Kane said, looking at his friend with suspicious eyes.

  “One of us can’t take on a snagon by ourselves. Your house has a security system for a reason. Why don’t we set it and do what Phillip said, get some food and rest? It has been a long 24 hours for all of us, and we will be of no good to anyone if we are too tired to think straight,” Carlie said with annoyance, almost an anger that no one except Phillip had ever seen from her.

  Carlie was usually the calm, calculating one. Her work in IT had made her methodical in her actions, and years of living with Phillip gave her a calm counter to his exuberance.

  “Okay, you are right, Carlie. But I’m also going to try this ALARM spell. If I can only use it once, like Callie’s spells, let's use it to get some rest in case these creatures have something that our regular system can’t detect. At least we will have that extra assurance," Kane said, getting up from the table and heading towards the stairs.

  “Where are you going?” Callie asked, pausing on her way back to the bathroom to put away the medical kit.

  “I’m guessing we are all going to be upstairs, so I’m going to put the ALARM on the downstairs door," Kane said, pausing on his movement down the stairs just long enough to say what he needed to and then continuing on his mission to try to secure the house.

  Callie nodded to herself and then continued on her way to put the kit back.

  Phillip looked at his wife, who was suddenly very stoic in her chair at the kitchen table. He stood up and kissed her on the forehead before also heading down the stairs. Phillip needed a moment to think about his situation and what he was going to do to protect his family if the loss of feeling in his hand was permanent.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  He had trained to use both hands while in the military, but he wasn’t as skilled at it as Kane or Stern, who used to have competitions using their off-hands to shoot on their rare ‘off’ days in regiment. Phillip had always volunteered to be the judge between those two whenever the competition was mentioned. He was now regretting not taking Stern up on the offer of working with him. But he couldn’t change that now; now he needed to figure out what to do with the situation he had. At least his wife and kids were with Kane; he trusted Kane would protect them like they were his own.

  “Those assholes' timing is impeccable!” Stern thought as he tried to dodge another flying creature.

  Stern was forced off the main roads just as Phillip had been, but Oklahoma wasn’t being as careful with their secondary highways, so at least Stern was still on pavement. He had to take dirt roads with the truck and camper going from Arkansas into Oklahoma, making the travel slow. He had pulled off for a few hours to catch some sleep and to try to take some of the weariness out of his eyes. Dani, thankfully, had curled up in the backseat of the truck with Olive, their black lab, and slept a solid 8 hours. That kid was remarkable that way; when she got tired, she just went to sleep, and nothing could disturb her.

  Stern had meant to check in with Kane or Phillip when he woke up, but in his daze, he had gone into the camper to make some food quickly, and when he walked back out with food in hand, something was waiting for him. It looked like a coyote but with a lot longer tail and a tongue like a lizard. The thing had growled at him and then lashed out with its tongue, hitting him in the leg of his cowboy boot. Thankfully, because Stern could feel the burning through the jeans of his pants and the leather of his boots.

  “WHAT THE FUCK!” Stern screamed, throwing the plates of food he had made for himself and Dani at the creature and sprinted for the truck. Instinctively reaching for his pistol and feeling an empty holster.

  “SHIT SHIT SHIT!!!!” Stern yelled as he nearly tripped over a rock he hadn’t seen in the early morning shadows.

  The coyzard shook its head, trying to clear away the runny eggs from its eyes, its tongue going wild, hitting the back of Stern's heel. Stern reached for the truck door, pulled it open, and dived inside, his heel burning through the leather. Stern grabbed his pistol from the tray in the center console, where he had put it when it got uncomfortable in his waistband last night. He flipped over onto his back, expecting the creature to be climbing in behind him.

  Surprised but not willing to take any chances, Stern scrambled back out of the truck and aimed his pistol where he thought the coyzard would be. Sure enough, the coyzard was there eating the eggs off the ground. Stern, in shock, lowered his pistol slightly, but then TWO more coyzards came out of the ditch on the other side of the road, growling at Stern as they came.

  Stern turned to point his pistol at the new coyzards as he did, he heard the growl to his right. Stern took a deep breath, put a small smile on his face, and turned to the closer coyzard.

  “Want some? Come and get it,” Stern said, smiling at the creature as it got into the pouncing position, flinging its tongue again towards Stern's feet. Stern aimed and took a single shot to the creature's forehead, dropping it. Then turned towards the two others that were full sprinting at him, whelping and screaming as they came at him.

  Stern aimed at the creature on the left winging it, but quickly corrected his aim and hit the coyzard with a shot through the eye. As he took the shot, the coyzard on the right lashed out with its tongue and hit Stern across his right forearm like a whip. Stern grunted in pain, nearly dropping his pistol. Thankfully, Stern had nearly two decades of practice switching from his right dominant hand to his left hand. Stern made the correction, aimed, and fired at the nearly on top of him coyzard. He hit the creature just below the head in the chest. The creature staggered, but kept coming at him. He fired again as the creature leaped, attempting to bite down on the hand holding the pistol. Stern dropped his pistol in an attempt to get his hand out of the way. The tongue of the now dead creature hit Stern’s shirt on his right side, nearly dropping Stern from the force of the whip.

  Stern dropped to his knees, grabbing his side. The shirt was ripped open, and there was a slight sear mark on his ribs, but Stern was more concerned with his arm, which started to blister like it had been burned. Stern couldn’t feel his hand at all, where the blister was forming.

  “Master!” Olive cried, leaping out of the truck.

  “Hey, sweet girl,” Stern petted the old dog on the back as she lay down next to him, sniffing his arm.

  Olive touched her wet nose to the burning whip mark on Stern’s arm. The burning and blistering stopped and left a large red welt on his arm as Olive pulled her nose away. Feeling slowly returning to his hand.

  “Wow, thanks, old girl, how did you do that?” Stern asked, sitting down next to his loyal companion.

  “LAY ON HANDS, I’m a Paladin now,” Olive said, resting her head on Stern's leg, “I can’t take care of your side yet, though," She whimpered as she said it.

  “It’s okay, girl, let's get some food and get back on the road,” Stern said, slowly getting up. An awkward numbness in his side where the tongue had hit him. But it wasn’t hurting, and he could still breathe, so Stern wasn’t terribly concerned about it.

  Stern went back to the camper and remade the eggs he had flung at the coyzard, hoping Callie’s chickens were still laying when he finally made it to Kane’s. Stern took a quick moment and checked on Dani as the eggs were cooking; somehow, the eight-year-old had slept straight through all the commotion. Stern chuckled to himself and shut the truck door to finish cooking the eggs.

  Quickly cleaning up while eating his eggs, Stern put Dani’s eggs on the paper plate and locked the camper door for the first time that trip, then climbed back into the driver's seat. Olive had climbed back into the backseat sometime between Stern starting the eggs and checking on Dani. She had found her food bag and had ripped it open.

  “I would have gotten that for you,” Stern said to Olive as he lightly shook Dani.

  “Yeah, well, last time you made eggs, three creatures charged you, I didn’t want to wait," Olive said, still nibbling on her kibble.

  Stern sighed as Dani rubbed her eyes and sat up, “Breakfast,” He said, seeing her eyes open.

  “Huh, okay,” Dani said, reaching for the plate in front of her, “Dad, I have to pee.”

  “Okay, sweetie, let me check the grass before you get out,” Stern said, grabbing a new clip from the glove box and reloading his pistol. He got out of the truck again; thankfully, Dani was sitting on the driver's side. He checked a small area where Dani could get out, took a look at the larger surrounding area, then opened the truck door. Olive jumped out, nearly knocking Dani over.

  “My turn too!” She said, running deeper into the grassy field than Stern liked.

  “Don’t go too far!” Stern yelled after her, not happy at only being able to see her tail.

  “Dad, turn around, I don’t want you watching me!” Dani whined, doing a little potty dance.

  “I need to be able to watch for danger, Dani," Stern said, looking down at his daughter.

  “Well then, watch over there!” Dani said, pointing her hand so he would have to look away, still dancing.

  “Fine,” Stern said, turning away from his daughter reluctantly. Soon, he heard the familiar sound of relief.

  “Done!” Dani called from further away than Stern liked. He turned around, and she had wandered down to the camper wheels and had apparently relieved herself next to the tires. Thankfully, she was already walking back, and he could see Olive bounding back herself. He signed with relief and took note that next time he needed to clear a larger area.

  Everyone climbed back into the truck, and they took off again. Thankfully, Stern had found a gas station at the previous exit and had filled up the truck and all of the spare gas cans he could find. He normally got great gas mileage, but towing the camper took a lot of that gas mileage away. He also knew soon he was going to start gaining in elevation again, though he wasn’t sure where in Oklahoma he actually was. He knew he needed to head west, so he had pointed his compass that direction and had meandered the best he could in a western direction.

  He had taken the chance and was staying on the paved roads, hoping that would help save time and gas. And after a few hours, he had started to see signs for Fort Sill. That was further south than he was hoping to be, but without bringing up a map, he had just been guessing where he was. His phone didn’t have great reception in this part of the country, and he didn’t want to keep hearing the “redirecting, redirecting” he had listened to when he first turned off the main roads in Arkansas. But seeing the signs for Fort Sill made him decide to turn his phone back on and type in Kane’s address; he needed to get on the right path, or he would never get to his destination.

  As he finished typing in the address and started making the corrections, he saw the dark spot. He hadn’t seen one since Little Rock hours and hours ago. This spot looked larger somehow, and the sky had suddenly become very dark. Maybe he was just closer to the dark spot, but things were dropping out of the center of it, and there was no lightning like there had been at Little Rock. As he watched, some of the things dropping out started coming straight for him.

  “Shit shit shit!” Stern yelled, “Dani, buckle up! Olive, stop eating!”

  “Dad! What are those things!?” Dani screamed from the back seat.

  “I don’t know, buckle in and hold on!” Stern yelled, swerving the truck to avoid hitting one of the flying creatures straight on.

  “No shit, I’m in battle!” Stern yelled as he dodged yet another hawk-like creature. If he didn’t know any better, he would have thought they were a regular brown prairie hawk, but these were so much bigger. The first one that flew at Stern was maybe the size of his Labrador, but the second that he barely missed was the size of a St Bernard at least. He hadn’t seen their tongues yet, but both of their beaks were wide open and made a screeching owl-type noise. Talons outstretched to try to grab the truck.

  As Stern struggled to keep the camper trailer and the truck from tipping over while trying to move faster to get away from the creatures he saw, there was indeed a flock. Sorry, hazard. There were probably a dozen of the creatures coming in Stern’s direction. Stern looked at the GPS on his phone; thankfully, he was about to take a right, but that wasn’t for another 2 miles.

  “Shit, fuck me, shit!” Stern muttered loudly, quickly scanning the road and ditches in front of him. He didn’t have a choice; he had to keep going forward. He straightened his truck, struggling to get everything back in line.

  After many jerking attempts, he finally got the truck and camper trailer in sync again and pressed the gas pedal to the floor. He needed to get away from those creatures, and he needed to get away from this spot thing. The spot was now on his left, and he could see there was lightning now, and it didn’t look like any more creatures were coming out. That didn’t help him in his current predicament, though; he still needed to get away.

  The two miles moved quickly, and Stern took the sharp right just as a couple of lizawks caught up to him. They flew straight into the side of the truck, making Dani scream, and Olive started growling and barking viciously at the creatures scratching at the window next to Dani. The creatures flew off, not able to keep up with the centrifugal force of the turn. Stern heard at least two more *thunks* on the back of the truck, and it felt like the camper hit a giant pothole. Stern was hoping that meant he had run some of them over.

  Just then, his phone rang, hiding the map.

  “NOT A GOOD TIME!” Stern screamed into the phone as he answered and then quickly pressed the ‘end call’ button on the center console.

  “Those assholes' timing is impeccable!” Stern thought as he tried to dodge another flying creature.

  Thankfully, the GPS map came onto the screen right away, and Stern saw he was going to be taking another turn, but to the left this time, but not for a couple more miles.

  “Shit, what do I do?” Stern thought out loud as he heard the most horrendous, ear drum-shattering scream from behind them.

  Stern looked in his side mirrors, and it looked like he had run over a couple of the birds, and the remaining birds were landing next to their fallen. The living birds had their beaks wide open towards the sky and were screeching with outstretched necks. They could stretch those necks further than any hawk Stern had ever seen. There were still at least six or eight hawks making the same gesture and screaming.

  Stern’s ears were splitting; this was worse than any tinnitus he had ever experienced. It was even worse than the pain he had felt getting boxed in the ear in a bar fight a couple of years ago. Stern looked in the rearview mirror, and both Dani and Olive, to the best of her abilities, were covering their ears from the unnatural and painful noise. Suddenly, Stern felt something running down the side of his face and down his neck. He reached up, thinking he was wiping away sweat, to find red on his hand.

  “Shit,” Stern thought, "that wasn’t good.”

  He thought about the time a private hadn’t put his ear protection in properly during a training, and one of the foam pieces had fallen out right as he pulled the trigger on his M240 machine gun. The poor kid dropped the rifle and started screaming in pain. He hadn’t heard if the kid had gotten his hearing back in that ear or not, but the private was gone from the unit after that. Stern hoped that the bleeding was temporary and that what had happened to that kid hadn’t just happened to him. Stern kept driving as fast as he felt he could safely drive; he wanted to put at least a hundred miles between that dark spot and those lizawks and him and Dani.

  Fifteen or so minutes down the road, he heard Dani whimpering in the back seat, “Thank God, I can hear that,” Stern thought, then checked the rear view mirror.

  “Dani, are you okay?” Stern asked his daughter, looking for her to respond.

  “My ears are ringing and they hurt,” Dani said, though it sounded muffled through his own ringing ears. But it was good that he could hear it at all.

  “It’s going to be okay, my girl. My ears are ringing too,” Stern said, trying to reassure his daughter.

  “Your ears are bleeding too,” Dan’s muffled voice said.

  “Master, my goodness!” Olive suddenly said, popping her head up.

  She attempted to touch her nose to Stern’s ears as she leaped from the backseat to the front seat.

  “No, Olive!” Stern said, blocking the dog's nose, “Take care of Dani.”

  “Master, I did, she can hear, and she is no longer bleeding. I can’t do anything for the fright, the poor thing,” Olive said as she whimpered.

  “It’s okay, Olive, she will be okay. Why don’t you let Dani pet you?” Stern said, trying to wipe the blood off the side of his face so hopefully it would stop worrying Dani.

  Olive climbed onto the back seat again and rested her head in Dani’s lap, gently licking her own lips. Dani started gently petting Olive’s head as she watched her dad drive. After a little bit, Dani switched her focus to outside the window, watching the landscape go by. The sky had turned back to its typical blue with white fluffy clouds, like nothing had just happened. Dani started to silently cry; she wanted her mom, but her mom had passed away from a heart condition a couple of years prior. So as Stern drove, Dani cried silently while Olive sifted through her menus trying to find a way to make her baby feel better.