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Chapter

KAESO

Death Cliff

Atop the apex of Death Cliff, Kaeso gazed the endless, torrid Lizen desert landscape, and recalled the day he happened upon the portal to Altyria.

On Earth, in the year 149 B.C., he survived a fierce battle during which a band of twenty Macedonians encountered on a mission to Corinth slew his fifteen comrades. He stood alone and outnumbered as his enemies besieged him. Beyond the snarls of his assailants, the campfire charred the body of one of his dead soldiers. The aroma of burning flesh assaulted his senses and boiled his blood. His lungs pinched in the crisp night air as the warriors tightened the surrounding space. Opposite him, an aggressor's mouth morphed into a sinister grin. A diabolical chuckle escaped through his twisted, yellow teeth and carried across on rancid breath to Kaeso's nostrils. It stank of murder, and they planned to drag his out. An ordinary soldier would have been skewered by any of the eight remaining swords encircling him that evening.

However, Kaeso was no ordinary soldier.

Raised by his father after his mother died birthing him, Kaeso was a well-groomed, well-educated, well-spoken and well-mannered gentleman who had endured the most advanced physical combat and weapons training of any soldier in the civilized world. His father's travels as a Roman dignitary took them to countless places where he purported interest in local customs only to learn of their defenses and warfare capabilities.

Kaeso overcame his adversaries by surprising them with borderline inhuman speed and finesse. They lay in dismembered corpses at his feet within minutes, but he did not come out of it unscathed. A serrated enemy blade sliced his thigh, and he did his best to tend the wound using the belt of a fallen soldier as a tourniquet.

For two days, Kaeso wandered through the woods as he starved and bled to his Earthly demise. A few feet at a time, he depleted every surge of energy he mustered and weakened to where he could not continue. His breathing labored, and his head drowned in a painful concoction of confusion and dizziness. His body no longer recognized his leg, and he knew from its putrid smell that it would be the death of him if blood loss did not claim his life first.

During his last moments, Kaeso heard a loud, howling noise followed by a bizarre, gravitational pull throughout his soon-to-be corpse. Swirls of vibrant colors appeared and floated above the ground. He squinted as the hues intensified into beams of light, radiant as the sun. A crack of lightning sprung from the bright spirals as it latched on, lifted and pulled him toward the anomaly. He froze, and if he had the strength to scream, the sound would have caught in his throat. Electric jolts pulsed through his limbs and into his heart. A thermal energy sizzled within his veins, and his body convulsed. He panicked, watching the world in which he grew up and fought for fade into a pale apparition before shrinking out of existence. Kaeso closed his eyes, assuming death had embraced him. As though the strange force was on standby waiting for him to relent, he gave in to an overwhelming somnolence and accepted his fate.

Kaeso refocused, taking a deep breath through his nose, dissecting the air, and examining each nuance as well as the directions from which they came. North of the cliff, he noted the emitting odor of a rotting animal carcass picked clean by vultures. The nomads likely killed an Altyrian hyena for sport, as they had no respect for life.

Ripe berries awaited harvest in the northwest. From the west, he detected a burning fire that belonged to the hearth of the cabin where he spent the previous evening. The bonded couple living there gave him food and a place to rest. Kaeso came upon their dwelling by accident in search of a spot to camp for the night.

Nestled on a peaceful plot of land where the desert peters out and green foliage kisses the landscape, the cabin was an enigma. Thanks to the semi-hidden location, the couple did not need to fend off many intruders. Most people dared not travel this far south. Even still, they could defend their own. At six-foot seven, Joshua was a beast. Cautious and smart, his mate, Netti, was no slouch either. The couple seemed unaware of his reason for being there, and he was uncomfortable divulging that knowledge. To protect them in case anyone came asking questions, he used a fake name.

Kaeso left their home that morning believing Joshua and Netti were a quiet couple content to living eternity together as bondeds do until Joshua peered through the trees to the distant slave camp and glanced at him with a smirk.

"We have room underground. You should have enough time to make it here before they recoup. Make sure you take their heads off, though. But you already know that, Kaeso."

Dumbfounded, Kaeso stared at Joshua. How the hell did he-?

Joshua crossed his arms. "We know who you are. We're from Fresia too, and you're a legend. Do you think us fools?"

"Certainly not, Joshua. Thank you kindly for your hospitality and your generous offer," Kaeso said with a bow.

Joshua held up his hand and chuckled, "That kind of cordiality is unnecessary. And you were planning to return with them, anyway."

Stung by embarrassment, Kaeso choked a bit. "That is what I mean to do, yes.”

"Then hurry. And make those bastards hurt!"

"That, I will do," Kaeso said, relieved at gaining two unexpected allies.

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