My journal for my kittens by D.A.Sanford - HTML preview

The unexpected happens

We have been living in the farm house now for a few weeks. It is cordial and polite. Catlin and I go to the hide to get away. We were silent for a while but then she asked me to stop. I pull over. We are a few miles from the hide. “You need to transfer the deed over to your sister. That is her place. You and I need somewhere around here to call our own. I do know the circumstances on how she came to live there but really, I ask you, does it feel like home?”

“No it does not. I know what you mean.”

“My bigger problem is that it also is that young girls grave. You know what the Watcher was implying when she stopped us at that child’s grave and talked to it about a full circle. She was saying that I am that little girl. I do not doubt her but do you know what it is like knowing that you are buried in your own yard.”

I look at her and that really affects her. I get out of the car and have her do the same. There, on both sides of the road are acres of cleared land but it is now open meadow. I take her hand and we walk to the top of a slow hill. There in the valley before us is a lake. No sign of any homes within untold miles. We walk down to the shore and sure enough no sign of any human activities.

I look at Catlin and she is lost in thought. Calling the lawyer, I tell him to get a GPS lock on my phone. “I want this land from the road at least a hundred acres or two. That must include the lake we are standing at. Go as high as they want but there is no developments, no industry so I would say that you start a two mil and try to settle for ten.”

Telling him thanks, I look at her face and she is melting. I just tell her that it looks like I need another dump run to that world of gold. “This area next to the lake, I see something in the form of a manor. All you need is to find a style that you want. Do you think that your parents would like to move here?”

I get a sour look from her. “I love my parents but they are the reason I joined the crew of the Bone Yard. They can be smothering. Suitor after suitor were showing at our door at mother’s request. I want to visit but.”

“Just a passing thought but how about we invite some from your old world to visit. I found out that they have cloaking devices that allow people that cannot change to be able to be seen as the life form on the world they wish to visit.” She thinks it is a grand idea. “We could give some of the housekeeping jobs to others from the goblin world. It would give them a chance to see other worlds.”

Liking that idea we take many pictures of the lake and she picks out the proper location for our home. It took her quite a while because that spot needed to have the right ascetics, the right views. You could tell when she found that ideal because her eyes just said, this is it.

Without saying a word, she looks at me. While we were walking, I found a sturdy branch. I tore a strip of cloth off my shirt, drove the branch into the ground and tied the cloth to it. She just hung on my arm and dreamt.

In the hide, I showed her a web site that had styles of houses. From Victorians to thatched huts. Catlin was very intent but laughed at some. After quite a few, I noticed that she was staring at one style.

“You like that one?” I ask.

She does but it was small. I have her type in large log homes. Now her smile was ear to ear. She was literally bouncing. I tell her that it was still too small but they can make it as large as we want.

The lawyer bought a hundred acres on each side of the road. It was a little over the ten I wanted but both sides were owned by the same person. That person agreed when he was told that it was for a home not a subdevelopment. That was put into the new deed. We had turned over the farm to my sister and moved into the hide while the log home was being built. The plans, I left up to Catlin to decide what she required and what visitors would need.

Once the prints were made, we, along with the builder, went to that exact spot. Wetlands required a certain distance from the lake. A safe short distance from that line, I drove in a stake where she wanted one corner of the house. She them rolled out a hundred foot line at the angle she wanted and I drove in another stake. The line was attached.

It took a few small adjustments but now it was exactly as she saw it in her mind. The builder used GPS to mark the stake locations for the proper angle. The equipment was on site and she came out to make sure that the paint line for the foundation was correct. I warned her that once they started, she could come and sit while it was being built but she was not to interfere. Catlin was good on that but she had fallen in love with the Rambler and now drives every day to the site.

A few times she has had the architect there. We now have a boat house being built for the lake use and the lake is being surveyed for safe swimming areas with a beach. I say Catlin must have always wanted something like this. My thoughts go back to what the Watcher said to that grave stone.

“You have now come full circle. Enjoy that life you dreamed of.” What seemed like a very long time now has just flown by at sonic speed. The manor is finished and landscape is perfect. The only thing I care about is the fact that my wife is all smiles.

She put a lot of effort into this place, right down to the placement of all the furniture. Now it was time for the thing that had her worried, showing others. Since my lawyer is a partner, he knows to who I am married. He knows of the other worlds and of the people who live on them. He also knows of the gods. He and his family will be invited when the Bone Yard crew and people from her world come for the house warming party.

But first we need to invite all the gods here to see. They have been watching over us and it is only right to have them over first. It was a surprise when they told us that they would like to be here with the other guests.

Jacob, Vannessa and the Bone Yard crew are the first to arrive. They have brought a gift. A nonmagical door. We have one at the hide but this will make the trip between the hide and here easier.

They love the layout and the fact that it really is private. The boats and swimming area are a hit. Catlin tells me that is the reason she paid attention to the lake. The Bone Yard has showers but no swimming pool. Vannessa hears this and now she is going to have one made when they get back.

Goblin world is next, her parents are here but for whatever reason, her mother has an angry look to her. They come over to us and her father tells us that this place is wonderful. Her mother does a harrumph and then we hear what is bothering her. “When am I going to be a grandmother?! You should have been trying rather than wasting what little time I have left on this! It is a very nice place.”

“Nice to see you too mom. One, we have been trying. Hasn’t happened. Two, we needed our own place. The farm was Able’s sister’s home. Can’t be making night music in a full house.” This is a side of Catlin that I find intriguing. Everyone is enjoying themselves when I get a call.

It is the gods of all activating everyone. I yell for everyone to gather.

“I just got a call from the gods of all. They have frozen time on a world. Everyone is to get into whatever ship they can use. The coordinates are already in your ships. The Cleanup crew found a world that is having a worldwide festival. The game is the same. To see how long a slave last under torture. The slaves are of the nonhuman races. They need everyone to free the slaves, heal those and find a place for those, who were tortured to death, a safe quiet place to find eternal rest.” Catlin and I ask if we could hitch a ride with the Bone Yard. Jacob told us that they would be offended if we did not ask. Now everyone is disappearing. Our home is empty. Even my sister and her husband are going. All the children are now on the goblin home world being looked after by the elders.

The swarm of ships were transported to that world by the gods. Doors are opening and ours are getting sick at the sight. Frozen in their debauchery are the throngs cheering and betting as a slave is being whipped to death.

That person was the first to just not be there.

The Watcher is crying as she curses them. The one being whipped is a goblin. Not even old enough to be an adult. Now she calls her other children. The gargoyles. Her instructions to them it to kill anyone in any arena, town green anywhere they see this. Gargoyles come from the mating of a female goblin and a male dragon. They have kinship and now I see something that I never will forget. I see them enraged with their own blood lust in their eyes.

We that came here, our task is to free everyone that is a slave. With my bag, I set out to gather the dead. I ask the gods of all to have them use whatever power they have to bring the dead slaves here so I can gather them.

Catlin knows my intentions. We are of one mind. “We have all that land on the other side of the road. We do not care what our world thinks. It is time for our world to get it’s head out of their collective asses and learn that this is where we could be headed if we do not learn to respect everyone as people.”

I say, “Each and every body will be placed in a grave on that land. I would ask, if possible, each name of the dead. They will be buried with a good blanket, food and water. Then Catlin and I will go public.”

The goblin leader has heard what we said and he tells the gods that they will be there with us. As the word spreads of what we are doing, more of the races say they will join us. The Watcher tells us that she will be there.

I ask the gods of all is they would be there with us. They would be honored. Now the gods go into action. The leaders of this world are now taken by them and will have a trial in the god realm. The Watcher tells us that they will not be happy. “They do not deserve death. Eternity on a burned up world alone.” All the slaves have been rescued. The ones that need healing, they can only be physically. Mentally they need one of the protected worlds that are quiet. The mental scars will take time to heal, if ever. They will be looked after with love. The number of bodies in my bag is in the thousands. The Bone Yard is full of people. All want to help tend to the dead. The gods again transport us to where this ship needed to go.

They one upped me. They had already made a worldwide announcement informing the world of what happened, what we were doing with the dead out of respect. Then they told our world that there are other sentient beings. That they have been living on our world blended in.

“There is a city sized ship that will be in orbit. Any hostile actions will be met with annihilation of all the government officials starting with the ones to launch.” They go on to inform the world of exactly what I have been doing. What my grandfather’s have been doing for the betterment of worlds. They also told of the wonderful behind the scenes support we were being given by my lawyer and my sister’s family.

“Show the kindness that they have shown and you will never need to worry about going to the final life.”

By the time we reach orbit and transport to the field, that field had every imaginable piece of equipment there ready to help. A discrete tent has been set up by the national guard. Evidently they just knew that I was carrying the bodies. There are companies that make the biodegradable caskets and they are in over drive making them. Each body will be cleaned up and wrapped in a blanket. A water bottle and some food will be in each.

I enter the tent with now all the gods and representatives of each race. The Bone Yard crew has formed an honor guard.

“I will warn you to remember what you are about to see. All these were tortured to death for a betting sport by our own kind. Humans. Through out the universe, we are seen as the scum, the slavers, the destroyers. Our race is a scourge but this very minute we stand at a door. We can walk through it and show the universe that at least this world will change or we laugh and place bets on how long others will last under torture. Know this, that world is now devoid of any sentient life. Now any who are faint of heart please, for your own sanity, leave. I will now place the bodies on each table. One of the gods will tell you who each is. You will clean them up. This is not the time for studying the dead.”

I take out the first and the horror on the faces tells all. I now place the next and the next. I am proud. I really see a change in my people. Identified, cleaned and placed in a casket wrapped in that blanket. There is a steady stream of pallbearers carrying the caskets to an open grave. At that grave, there are people from other worlds that have magic. They make a stone with the name and race. When the body is covered that stone is placed.

On and on, in shifts until the last is laid to rest, no one leaves. The gods of all now make a world announcement.

“This world has shown where it’s heart is in the respect they have shown. There will be a privillion made here. The grass will grow but never let the memory of this fade. This is a universal wakeup call. This must never happen again. Be proud, at least this world’s humans showed that they are truly people.”

After a month of the landscaping communities work, this is now a true place of rest. People from this world and others come to pay their respects. There was not a single picture taken, no phones out showing the grizzly mess those bodies were in. There have been many an interview with those who participated on how personable and dedicated the other races were. How we need to follow their simple philosophy, all are people.