3
As the dawn light spread across the upland meadow, the little alien house shone with the colors of a King’s ransom in metal. The scholar Hoss’k whispered for his guards to keep still.
Hoss’k eyed the little house speculatively. The gods only knew how he was going to take the damnable thing apart. There had been a reason he had refrained from harvesting the whole thing months back. And it hadn’t only been the need to get the captured Princess back to Kremer as quickly as possible.
Anyway, the whole question might be moot. Just like the last time, Hoss’k had arrived only to find somebody here ahead of him! A solitary figure paced impatiently about the clearing, muttering softly and carrying boxes out of the little metal house.
In the dim light, Hoss’k could half imagine that it was the foreign wizard himself! After all, the metal house was one of the obvious places to look for the fellow.
Perhaps Nuel could be made to disassemble the house for him! In any event, capturing and returning the wizard to Kremer would do a lot to relieve the warlord’s wrath.
Hoss’k was disappointed when the growing light revealed the intruder to be a light-haired man. It wasn’t Dennis Nuel at all, although the fellow did seem rather tall, like the wizard.
And as he and his guards listened from the cover of a nearby copse of trees, it seemed the fellow did speak with the same outrageous accent. Hoss’d strained to pick up the words as the foreigner mumbled to himself.
“. . .bloody mess!. . .return mechanism torn apart. . .stuff strewn around on the ground. . . crazy note about local intelligent beings!” The foreigner snorted as he picked through a pile of items pulled from crates on the ground.
“. . .getting even with me, that’s what he’s doing. Just because I went to N-Mart for his gear instead of that expensive wilderness store he picked. . .probably decided to go play explorer, and really did a number on the damned zievatron just to make certain nobody else could fix it. . .must’ve known Flaster’d pick me next. . . .”
Hoss’k had heard enough. One wizard would do in place of another. Maybe this one would be more tractable!
He motioned for his guards to spread out to surround the unsuspecting alien.