THE VROL TRILOGY (130 page)

"
Ohiro, when I
taught English to Isamu, I actually used a compound cantus, premade
- sort of a language-pack from the Prīmulī. Besides linguistics, it
also includes history and culture. The British would always use the
word zombie when referring to a cannibal
.
In fact, it is the same term used to describe
them in Hollywood.
"

Ohiro acknowledged Max's explanation, and the
lycan mage went on to detail how they would also assist in
eliminating to cannibal population in Tokyo, thereby clenching a
deal between the Azul Military, the Rhönen Dominion and Mūnkuran -
The Moon Clan of Tokyo Samurai Lycans.

###

Having returned to Krynos' castle, Max sat
with his father and grandfather, detailing his day trip to Japan.
Michael appeared to have a look of pride on his face, seeing that
Max was taking matters into his own hands, while Draagh sat back
and used his bubblehead invention to partake in his beloved
herb.

"Hey, erm, Michael. Um, I haven't seen you
smoking anything lately. Did you… quit?" Max asked his father with
whom he had been becoming increasingly comfortable.

"I am now a grandfather, so I need to provide
a good example for young Liliana."

"I only partake when in the company of
understanding adults," exclaimed Draagh, as he raised a finger in
the air.

Max rolled his eyes, aware that Draagh would
quit when he felt damned-well ready, and not a century before.

"Max, you will need to discuss your
newly-forged alliance with Krynos in a way so as to not insult him.
Remember, he is a king, and he expects to be part of the
decision-making process, especially as we are depending so heavily
on his troops," advised Michael.

"Um, yeah. I didn't really consider that. I
guess I can approach him like it's good for the Dominion, leaving
more soldiers here, and providing new alliances for trade,"
responded the young hybrid.

"Very good, my boy!" blurted Draagh, nearly
choking on the smoke inside his bubblehead.

Chapter
7 - Go Home

"That is so NOT fair!" Liliana
uncharacteristically shouted at her mother. "I have every right to
fight along your side. Have I not proven myself in training? I even
killed a Vrol, while the majority of these soldiers have yet to see
one!"

Jennie felt terrible about bringing
Liliana back to the Rhönen, but merely wanted her daughter to be
safe in case things got out of control, and everyone was certain
that things
would
get out of
control. The two sat at their usual table in the main dining hall
of the castle right before lunch was to be served, the younger of
the two being less than pleased with the nature of the
conversation.

"Lili, sweetie, we are sending you back
because we love you and want you to be safe. It's not a matter of
denying you the opportunity to fight - it's about always being
together after the fighting is over. Plus, you are young, and trust
me, we're going to have plenty of fighting in the future, whether
it's defending the Rhönen from vampires or assisting those on
another world."

Jennie tried to be slow, logical and
methodical with the little girl. It was imperative that she calm
her daughter down before another servant was accidentally tarred,
feathered and stuck to a wall in the castle dungeon. Liliana didn't
mean to throw the cantus the day prior - it was the result of an
emotional reaction. The poor woman was serving some mead one
second, and in the next she was in an entirely different part of
the castle, upside-down and screaming. Draagh had already
fine-tuned the Liliana's magical abilities for when she was in Azul
System, only enabling certain cantuses to be performed, but in the
Rhönen Dominion she had her full arsenal at her command - a
substantial number of spells, which sometimes backfired when she
was upset.

"Please, Mami, please let me help. There has
to be something I can do on Azul," she pleaded.

"Oh, I don't mind you helping, but it
will be from here. You are staying put in the Rhönen. If you behave
we'll take you on a nice, long vacation when we're finished with
the Vrol, but I am
not
going
to discuss this further."

Jennie gave Liliana a look of finality
- one that seemed to say
we are so totally
done here
.

Liliana took a deep breath and blew it out,
making a loud, obnoxious raspberry sound.

"Ok, so what is it that I can do to help from
here, where we do not even have any technology?"

‘My dear young girl, you can assist in the
formation of my new Youth Brigade!" boomed King Krynos, who had
just entered the dining hall, seeing that Jennie was in need of
assistance - and a distraction for the immensely powerful young
lycan mage. This caused Liliana and Jennie to both look up with
curious expressions at the lycan king, who was the closest thing
Jennie had to a father. Liliana also respected Krynos immensely,
but knew how to work him, so she quickly changed her attitude and
gave him her immediate attention.

"My King, what do you mean, this
youth brigade
? I recall you having
mentioned something about designing uniforms for such a group." The
young girl was definitely distracted, and her mother gained an
expression of relief from Krynos' sudden intervention.

"It is a special squad of the most talented
pups in the kingdom, young Liliana. Those who have not yet come of
age, but still can benefit from training in the ways of war. And I
wish for you to be the youth leader."

"Me? The… leader?" she said inquisitively,
while her face started to light up. "I would… love to! Yes, my
King! I shall be this leader you desire! I shall assist in training
my brothers and sisters in the ways of war. And then we shall
perform raids on the dilapidated ruins of what remains of Vladros'
putrid fiefdom, and kill and murder and decapitate-"

"Now now, my young one," laughed Krynos, as
he put a hand on her shoulder, "let us take this one step at a
time. First… we shall train. Understood?"

Liliana looked up at her King, the one
absolute authority figure she had known during her entire young
life. His commands even eclipsed those of her biological parents,
whom had sadly murdered each other during a full moon many years
prior. However, her new, adoptive parents were not mere subjects of
the Rhönen. They were from the Future-Past - the
29
^th
century; and a very
technological world. Add to this the fact that her father, Max, was
known as The Hybrid - a combination of archangel and lycan never
before seen, so Liliana knew that she could probably get away with
more than the average Rhönen child. Still, she knew how to play the
game and when to show respect. This was one of those moments, so
she used it to her advantage.

"Yes, King Krynos. I am honored you have
chosen me, and I shall follow the orders of my superiors."

"You see, Lili?" Jennie added. "Good things
will come your way. You just need to show a little patience. And
thank you, King Krynos. Your offer is truly appreciated."

"Jennie, we must all do what we can in order
to protect our worlds. Speaking of that, I believe that young Max
and his father shall be soon leading the guest children and elders
to their new quarters outside the castle, am I not correct?"

Krynos was referring to the dozens of Haida
lycans that had been brought over from the world of
Post-apocalyptic Saxman, Alaska. It wasn't even their true
timeline, as they had been transported by Marnn during one of his
better days, in order to protect them from the Vrol amoebic
infestation that occurred in their own timeline. Their help was
welcomed, but their encampment was taking up space in the open
courtyards of the castle and Krynos was eager to move them to their
new apartments, where Draagh and his sons had created housing for
hundreds.

"My King, I heard my papi talking about that
with Grandfather Draagh this very morning," said Liliana, answering
for her mother, which prompted Jennie to start to pull the young
girl's hair back and reset her long, black ponytail. The
resemblance between the two, aside from the obvious difference in
complexion, was striking to say the least. Liliana was going to
grow up to be a gorgeous woman, but at the moment was a little girl
who needed parental guidance, especially as she had a deadly
arsenal of magical skills at her command.

"Ah, excellent. I shall then discuss this
further with your good father, young Liliana. Please remember, the
Youth Brigade's first meeting is this evening after dinner, at
Ohiro's quartermaster station."

Krynos then gave the two a look of utmost
affection, kissed each on the forehead and walked off without
another word.

"Mami, I do believe I shall be quite content
here, now that I am going to lead the Youth Brigade."

Jennie put her arm around her adopted ball of
wonder and snuggled with her, hoping in the back of her mind that
she would indeed return from her fight with the Vrol.

###

"King Krynos, with the utmost respect I
present to you new trade opportunities and an alliance that shall
benefit both our worlds," said Max, as he bowed before the
king.

The leader of the Rhönen Dominion nodded his
abnormally-large skull and agreed with the lycan/mage hybrid.

"Very well, Max. I trust you and your
family implicitly, so I shall welcome this agreement. But before we
sign any treaty, may I ask that you use your formidable skills to
transport me to the land of those who wish an alliance, so that I
may get some
face time
, as
you would say."

Max looked up at Krynos and grind. "Sir, you
desire to slip out of here, don't you?"

"Yes. I tire of the daily activities," he
said, maintaining a great deal of exasperation in his voice.

"Do you remember when I made the sushi
meal?"

"It is that which I desire, Max. Shall it be
of a superior quality? And with the green stinging paste?"

"Oh yeah. Oh man, yes."

Max had, on a whim, gone on a culinary
rampage some weeks before, and had introduced several different
types of international cuisine to the leadership of the Rhönen.
During this time, Krynos developed a particular fondness for
Japanese food. Max found that the king had quite a taste for soy
and wasabi - both key ingredients, aside from seafood, in the
historically healthy Japanese diet. Max's kitchen expedition was
more of an attempt to keep Krynos from insisting on creating
a
Doubling Hand Held Instant
service booth in the commissary, this being Krynos' name for
his desired duplication of the In-n-Out Double-Double cheeseburgers
he had sampled some weeks earlier. The king was no slouch when it
came to food. He saw the hamburgers as the ultimate lycan power
food - an excellent combination of protein, carbs and grains. He
even went as far as demanding they make the sandwiches with
the red fruit
- his name for
tomatoes.

Max would have none of this, knowing that,
although delicious, the burgers were not adequate nutrition, and he
didn't desire to see an obese Rhönen Dominion.

Taking this into account, he was pleasantly
surprised that Krynos took an immediate liking to Japanese food.
But what surprised him even more was his wife's response. When they
were initially thrown together, and during their tenuous first
conversations, she had admitted that she didn't care for seafood at
all. Max was intent on changing that, and he did. Jennie had become
the number one sushi fan in the entire realm.

Max thought it was great she enjoyed
seafood (something she had never previously cared for), but what he
really liked was the fact that it
excited
her, and that always led to a fun
evening - once they had put their daughter to sleep, of
course.

As the day was already half-past, Max and
Krynos agreed to set out for Tokyo the following morning, at 4 a.m.
The reason for this was the disparity in time zones. Tokyo was
eight hours ahead of the Rhönen, so a slip out at the predefined
hour would put them in Isamu's compound at noon - just in time for
lunch.

###

"Abuelito, have you been working on our idea
for identifying the enemy via their genetic markers?" queried young
Liliana, as she sat by her grandfather's side.

Michael carefully took the eye patch he had
developed, at his granddaughter's insistence, and set it on the top
of his desk. It was what he had earlier allowed the girl's mother
to use - a magic-enhanced head's up display, more detailed than a
lycan's levels meter, which would identify not only the genetic
subspecies of the subject, but also detail heart rate, blood
pressure and a true/false identifier to be used during
questioning.

"Please understand, Liliana, that this is a
prototype. Once I have decided on final functionality I shall
encapsulate the entire object within something the size of a
contact lens."

"Abuelito, what is a contact lens?"
asked the little girl; honestly not knowing what one was, as they
didn't exist in the 43
^rd
, nor
the 29
^th
centuries.

"Oh, yes, it is no small wonder you are
unaware of them. They were tiny glass-like coverings that people
would put onto their eyeballs to correct imperfect vision. They
were invented in the 19
^th
century, but were rendered obsolete by the
22
^nd
century, thanks to
prenatal gen-mods."