A warrior queen with an unusual talent is magically marooned on another planet and tries to use another type of magic, the magic of technology, to get home.

Please forgive this humble attempt at writing a crazy story.

NOTE: Comments have been disabled for this story to protect my fragile ego.

This is a complete story of twenty chapters and I'll post two chapters every weekend.

Return of the Queen
by Terry Volkirch

CHAPTER 12

The group was nearing the end of their current night march and found themselves only two more days from Roggzer. Dalene was happily daydreaming about some of the comforts of civilization and Gabrielle wished she had the luxury of daydreaming, but the third woman in the group didn't share their enthusiasm.

"What if I stay just out of town with her?" Thelma asked the queen. "Fritz and I should be safe enough then. Right?"

Gabrielle tried not to roll her eyes. "No, Thelma."

"Fritz would protect me. Come on."

"We need you to find more Kisprians in the city. I have some ideas that will help but you're still the best way to find our stranded brothers and sisters."

"Oh. Right." Thelma slumped. She really grew to like the little mogron and like the others, she didn't want to see her come to any harm.

"Truthfully, I don't know what we're going to do when we reach the city. I need to continue sleeping during the day, just like Fritz. It's going to be awkward."

Gabrielle had quietly mentioned her odd sleep schedule to Thelma, explaining about the need to change her travel times back to her queendom so roving bands of barbarian men wouldn't think she was an imposter and attack. Since she'd already talked in her sleep about pregnancy, she'd included the part about starting a rumor that she was pregnant.

Thelma amazed her once again. The redhead didn't laugh at all. She just nodded like she approved. But then she spoke and reminded the queen that she still had some roughness to smooth out.

"What if you turned another man into a woman who looks just like me?

"That's a terrible idea, Thelma. I don't turn men into women without good reason."

"But it is a good reason! It's for Fritz!"

Thelma started bawling and the group didn't have the heart to shush her. The little mogron could tell something was wrong and started nuzzling Thelma's leg, causing the redhead to drop to her knees and hug the animal.

"Thelma?" Gabrielle continued. "I'm fairly sure she knows you by scent as much as if not more so than sight. Even if I got a man to volunteer, it probably wouldn't work. I could copy features fairly well but I doubt I could duplicate a person's scent. I'm sorry."

The redhead collected herself and stood up.

"You're right, Gabrielle. It's a bad idea. I'm sorry but I'm desperate. I'm not going to let anything happen to Fritz."

The queen could see the determination in the woman's eyes and just nodded. They'd have to find a way to protect the young mogron.

~o~O~o~

After sweeping the area and rolling out their bedrolls in the shade of a particularly nasty looking bunch of tall thorn bushes, the group sat down and brainstormed for ideas about Fritz. They were all quite tired but they couldn't sleep until they figured out a way to safely get the mogron into the city.

"What about passing ourselves off as a traveling act of some sort?" Durgan suggested.

"What? Like a circus?" Dalene scoffed.

Thelma snorted amusement and Fritz took that to mean it was hunting time. The little mogron was up and sniffing around the campsite, looking for something to track.

"It's that time again," Thelma said with a smile. She actually started looking forward to the hunt. Her first hunt with Fritz hadn't gone well. The young mogron had insisted on sharing the kill with her adopted mother. But since then, Thelma managed to stall and bring back a dead animal to cook and share back at camp. The arrangement worked out nicely.

"Thor?" Gabrielle said.

The large man pointed to himself and shrugged.

"Yes, you. Would you please follow along and keep Thelma and our young one out of trouble?"

He looked uncertain.

"You can handle it. I want to stay and think about Fritz with the others. Please go with them... unless you have any ideas."

"I'll go," he said before turning to Thelma and Fritz. "Ladies?" he said to them.

That caused Gabrielle to snort amusement.

Thelma rolled her eyes and took off running, shouting back over her shoulder. "Come on, Fritz. Let's lead Thor on a merry chase."

The redhead had continued to slim down and was getting in very good shape. Fritz helped with that. The young mogron would take off after a scent and Thelma would play the worried mother and chase after her. She couldn't help but get in shape.

Thor certainly didn't mind the exercise. He was in great shape before they left Marzelle and he thought he could keep up. It also didn't hurt that he found Thelma to be very attractive. He was very motivated to keep her in sight. With Thelma's guardian queen out of the way, he might even try to flirt with the redhead — if he could catch her.

~o~O~o~

Thelma and Fritz did lead Thor on a merry chase. The woman had built up a lot of endurance as well as lost a lot of weight. Thor had strength but he didn't fare well over long distances. It was all he could do to keep up. He caught his breath when the pair of females dug out a niggler nest and then huffed and puffed as he followed them back to camp. Fritz wasn't slowed much by having to digest her large meal and, even with a dead niggler slung over her shoulder, Thelma kept up a slow jog.

The three hunters came back to a very quiet camp. The brainstorming hadn't gone well.

"Hey," Thelma said. "We're back. And I've got a little extra for our...." She looked at the rising sun and used the word breakfast instead of dinner.

"Welcome back," the queen told them.

"I take it you didn't think of anything," the redhead asked. She knew the answer even without getting a reply.

"Well... I was thinking while we were out," Thelma said.

"Oh?" Dalene seemed interested at least. Durgan and Gabrielle just hung their heads.

"Do they have anything like dogs here? Could we disguise Fritz as a dog?"

That had the rest of the group scratching their heads. Since arriving on Agrin, none of them had seen anything like a dog, a popular pet back on Kispri.

"I don't think that will work, Thelma," Gabrielle said. "I doubt they have dogs here."

Thelma wouldn't give up. "But we could just call her a dog. We could say she's from another land, far away from here. We could say we picked her up on our travels. It wouldn't be a total lie. I know how you hate lying."

Durgan looked thoughtful and finally spoke up. "It's doubtful that the majority of city dwellers has seen an adult mogron, let alone a young one. It might work, as long as Fritz behaves herself."

The group turned and looked at Thelma, absently scratching Fritz behind an ear. The mogron drooled a little but her sharp teeth weren't visible. She looked completely harmless.

"I don't see any way of disguising her as a dog but yes, Durgan. I see your point. Let's just call her a dog and hope for the best. Thelma?"

Thelma dazzled Gabrielle and the men with a smile and they all forgot about their troubles for the rest of their day. They soon settled down to sleep through the heat of the day with Durgan taking first watch. Fritz settled down to snuggle with Thelma and another day passed.

~o~O~o~

Thelma used up the last of her astral voyage gifts and that was fine with her. She'd grown a little bored with seeing the same sights. She happily snuggled with her young mogron companion and dreamed of possible futures that usually involved starting a family on Agrin.

The queen was a little disappointed but mostly relieved to travel alone. Two more solo astral trips to the iron ship confirmed that it was built to sail between worlds. Whether it was in good enough shape to actually make the journey was yet to be seen. Still, there were promising signs. All of the blinking lights and humming of great power throughout the ship signified that it could do something.

Gabrielle had hoped for the best in spite of being unnerved by the huge underground chamber. She'd caught small flashes of light moving out of the corner of her eye, but whenever she'd turned to look, the flash had disappeared.

'Must be technology,' she muttered to herself. 'But it sure is strange.'

She just had to trust in the magic of technology.

The queen continued to travel back to Kispri for regular updates and was mostly pleased to hear that the rumor of her pregnancy had the desired result of keeping the barbarian hordes at a good distance. The rumor still embarrassed her a little, and it bothered her to deceive her royal subjects, but it was all for the best. That left her to focus on the task ahead. She had Kisprians and a guide to find. Then they would all march off to the great iron ship and hopefully sail it back home.

~o~O~o~

The tired group emerged from a cluster of low hills and marched into sight of the eastern part of Roggzer a little early, while it was still dark. Several lit oil lamps hung, casting long shadows over the streets on the outskirts of the city. Only a few people stirred at that hour, mostly militia guards and those who cared for livestock.

Gabrielle scouted ahead for an inn as close to the wilderness as possible for Fritz and reported back her success. They set their backpacks on the ground and waited for the innkeeper to open the door. It wasn't a long wait.

"Greetings innkeeper," the queen said when a large, middle-aged man with a ruddy face quietly opened the front door. "Have you some rooms available?"

The innkeeper scanned the group to informally screen them. He always kept a lookout for troublemakers and could usually spot them a mile away. When he came to Thelma, it was all he could do to tear his eyes away from the beautiful sight, but tear them away he did. Then he caught sight of Fritz.

"What are you doing with a mogron?" he said with a tired voice. He ran into all sorts of people with all different tastes. He'd had animal lovers stay at his inn before, almost always with disastrous results. The animals were rarely well-trained and ended up damaging the rooms, either by tooth and claw or, more likely, with their waste.

"What? No!" The tall woman took a step back, trying to collect herself. "This is a just an exotic pet," she said, pointing to Fritz. "We picked her up in a distant land. She's completely tame and...." The innkeeper's look told her that he wasn't fooled.

"Look," she began again. "The poor young thing lost her mother and followed us. She's bonded to the redhead there," pointing to Thelma. "We didn't know what else to do but let her come with us. She's really quite harmless and we won't stay long enough for her to grow up and be truly dangerous. Can't we keep her? Please?"

Gabrielle gave him the helpless, young woman look, not easy to pull off considering that she wore her battle leathers. She hated trying to manipulate the man but it was for a good cause.

The innkeeper still didn't look ready to yield though. He'd been hardened by too many bad guests, too many unpleasant incidents. It wasn't until he noticed Thelma that he softened.

Thelma walked up next to the queen and sniffled, a single tear rolling down her cheek. Fritz followed her adopted mother, sitting at her feet and adding to the mix with some quiet whimpering.

That did it. The innkeeper couldn't withstand three sorry looking females. He threw up his hands in surrender.

"Fine," he said. "The mogron can stay, but if she causes any damage, you'd better damn well pay for it."

"Oh! She won't be any trouble," Gabrielle said. "You'll see."

"Crazy animal lovers," the man muttered as he led the group inside.

~o~O~o~

The innkeeper gave the group a ground floor room in the back. It was normally used more for storage but he figured it would be better if they stayed there. They could easily take the young mogron out for walks without disturbing the other guests or staff. He cleared out some crates and added a second bed along with a couple of thick bedrolls. He even added some straw for the mogron and was rewarded with a brilliant smile from a very grateful redhead.

"There you go," the gruff man told the group. "Now I'd best be getting back to getting this dump ready for breakfast. Give me a candle mark and I should be ready for you."

"Do you have any raw meat we could buy?" Gabrielle quickly asked him as he was leaving.

His shoulders slumped. "Right. For the mogron. Just a minute. I'll check."

The man came back a very short time later with a large slab of meat. He led a very excited Fritz just outside the back door of the inn and set it on a relatively clean stone surface, where it was quickly devoured.

"Don't worry about the meat," he told Thelma. "It would've gone bad before it could be eaten anyway."

Thelma hadn't learned enough of the native language to understand what he said but the queen translated after the man left. She added a bit more to the translation too. She knew what he said was a lie. The meat could've been salted and dried in the sun to make jerky easily enough. It would've lasted long enough then.

"I think he likes you," Gabrielle told Thelma.

"What?!" The redhead seemed shaken.

"You don't think he gave us the meat because he's soft on young wild animals, do you?" She winked.

Thelma frowned and responded with her usual comeback. "Whatever."

~o~O~o~

With Gabrielle, Thelma and Fritz fast asleep in the room, the other three members of their group forced themselves to stay awake to get back to a normal sleep schedule. They wanted to explore a little, do some shopping and look for a guide. The queen had sketched a rough map in the dirt the day before to show them the layout of the city so they knew where to go. They headed for the large, flat, wedge-shaped market area in the southeast part of Roggzer.

None of the three could read the native script, but they could speak the language well enough, and Dalene wasn't shy. She asked around and hunted down a guide in short order. She found a tall, serious man named Louis and had a short talk with him to see if he was available. He was so they set up another appointment the next day to discuss details when Gabrielle would be awake.

After making some discreet inquiries to confirm the guide's good reputation, they bought a couple days worth of food and, at the queen's request, they got pen, paper and ink and wrote some flyers in their home language. The flyers were for the eyes of their fellow Kisprians and were written to tell anyone who could read the script to meet at the top of the market at sunset if they wanted to go home. Thelma would hopefully wake up before Fritz and verify the Kisprians by their magic glow in the dim light. Then she'd have to hurry back to the room and take Fritz hunting. After Fritz was happily digesting, they could hold the young mogron in the room easiy enough so Thelma could walk around the city to look for more Kisprians who either couldn't read or hadn't seen the flyers. That was the plan.

The three of them finished their tasks in the city but they some difficulty trying to drag themselves back to the inn for a short, early afternoon nap. Dalene and Durgan had lost their way, partly from fatigue and partly from all of the distractions of the market. Luckily, Thor had paid attention as he followed his two companions and led them to the right place. He didn't have much else to do.

~o~O~o~

The queen astrally traveled back at her castle and had to take two laps around the inner wall of the city, just outside her castle. She couldn't believe her eyes. Everywhere she looked, she saw flags and banners to congratulate her on her pregnancy. It was the best — or at least the most interesting — news they'd had in a long time and they got carried away.

She rushed to her bed chambers, threw on a robe and slippers and ran out to the meeting hall to find Muriel by herself, snacking on a small bowl of nuts.

"Mother Moon! What's going on?! Has everyone gone mad?!" the queen sputtered.

"Welcome back, your Majesty," her advisor said. "It would appear that there are never any easy fixes to anything."

"What are we going to do? I'm not pregnant and when I get back, there are going to be a lot of questions."

"I suppose it's too late to bed Durgan or Thor," the old woman mused.

"Muriel!"

"What? I'm just trying to explore all possibilities here. That's what you hired me for after all."

"I'm sorry. You're right."

The queen sighed and her mind raced to think of some way to explain her slender figure when she arrived back on Kispri. She wouldn't lie to her subjects if she could help it but would they be able to handle the truth? In this case, truth was stranger than fiction. She wouldn't consider saying that she had a miscarriage. She didn't even like the idea of saying nothing and letting her subjects come up with the idea of a miscarriage on their own. She felt trapped.

If the subjects were told what was really going on at present, the truth would escape the castle walls and it wouldn't be long before the barbarian hordes invaded. But if they waited to tell the truth after the queen's return, everyone would know they'd been lied to for a long time prior to her homecoming. There could be some serious trust issues.

Muriel got up and walked over to her friend, giving the tall woman a hug and then backing away to look her in the eye. "I'm sorry but you might just have to abdicate."

Tears came to the queen's eyes. "I know! I'm trying to hard to keep everyone safe but no one likes a liar. I feel so ashamed!"

Muriel repeated the hug and whispered in her friend's ear. "You have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. You're doing what must be done to keep us all safe."

Gabrielle sniffed. "They'll still be angry about the lying."

The two women separated and Muriel shook her head. "We should've known something like this would happen. We shouldn't have encouraged the rumor."

"Bad ideas happen, my friend," Gabi put her hand on Muriel's shoulder. "Let's just move on and take the consequences. Even if I abdicate, I can still stay and help defend this place, right?"

"Most assuredly, your Majesty."

"Oh. I take it you haven't had any more visions of the future; not even vague ones that might offer a smidgen of hope."

Muriel gave her friend a sad smile and shook her head no.

~o~O~o~

Sunset in Roggzer kept the group busy, but in a good way. It kept the queen from dwelling on her problems back home. Fritz hunted and behaved and Thelma identified two more male Kisprians in the market. The redhead also managed to pull herself away from the young mogron long enough to find a third male Kisprian later that night. They informed the new acquaintances about their plan and added three more to the group.

When the three men saw the beautiful redhead, they fell over themselves to agree to join the group. Thelma should've been upset by the attention but instead she was just sad to find three more victims who hated her former male self. She cut her walk short and spent the rest of the night with Fritz, waiting for the mogron to get hungry again so she could lose herself in the hunt.

The three new members of the group went back to their homes in Roggzer and enthusiastically agreed to meet in the market for daily updates and to find out when they could begin the journey to the iron ship. Thelma thought it best to not tell them that she wouldn't be going with them.

Gabrielle, Thelma and Fritz kept to themselves in the room at the inn, wallowing in a thick atmosphere of guilt. The young mogron was oblivious to the moody women and didn't care as long as she got plenty of attention and food.

"I guess we found a guide already," Thelma said.

"Yes," the queen agreed.

"And I guess we'll be meeting the guide first thing in the morning."

"Correct again."

"And I guess we'll all have a big party and dance with mogrons all day."

"Honestly, Thelma. I've been listening. I just don't feel much like talking."

"Oh. Sorry."

"It's okay. I'm guessing you would like to talk... about the three men we found."

"Yeah. I'm... I feel so guilty about...."

"Careful, Thelma. Remember. The walls have ears."

"What?" The redhead looked around, her eyes wide with fear.

"It's just an expression, Thelma. It means someone might be listening, either through the door or in the room next door."

"Oh. Well I'm kind of back to hating myself again. I'm so bad."

Gabrielle had almost smiled. Thelma hadn't shouted or cried for almost a full day. It had to be a new record.

"You're not bad, Thelma. You're no longer your former self. You're a new person and you're helping a lot of people get back home. You're righting a wrong and that's a good thing."

"I guess. But I've only found six victims so far. I know there are a lot more than six."

"Well, dear Thelma. We're not done searching for them, are we?"

"I guess not," Thelma replied. "I guess not."

~o~O~o~

 © 2012 by Terry Volkirch. This work may not be replicated in whole or in part by any means electronic or otherwise without the express consent of the Author (copyright holder). All Rights Reserved. This is a work of Fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional and any resemblance to real people or incidents past, present or future is purely coincidental.