Wandering Wizard

"Dastardly? How dare you, sir! We are here to return Inkeeper's property and drive the savages away so God Fearing men can properly use this soil. We serve the Lord!"

"You serve God by killing and maiming men, women and children? By taking land that is not yours to take? I think not. I've heard enough."

Bob grabbed the rolly poly man and almost drug him back to the holding area where he turned him over to the guards. He turned to the Chief and said, "I think I've learned all we can from these men. They're ready for their punishment."

The Chief gestured and the assembled braves moved toward the now three remaining men (the fourth one died before Bob could question him). They were pushed and drug to the center of the village where they were staked out beside the fire. The entire village gathered around as the men and women began exacting their revenge for the attack. Bob and Sasha were almost sick having to watch the torture. Finally, in desperation and compassion, Bob mentally restricted their carotid arteries, killing them so they wouldn't suffer any longer. Thankfully, the Indians had no knowledge he was the cause of the end of their punishment.

Bob spent the next three weeks healing those he could. He set broken bones, treated wounds and argued with nearly everyone who saw no reason for the enforced cleanliness or for not using injured limbs if they could. Finally, after those who would heal were well on the way to being well once again, he asked if he could speak in council.

Bob spent the whole evening trying to convince the village they needed to change the way they interacted with the Europeans. He advocated a militia, trained much as he was trained so many years in the future. He told them of his "vision" that showed the Europeans would continue to move west, taking their land and killing the natives as their thirst for land and riches continued unchecked.

The Chief said, "Much of this we have seen but we are few, they are many. They do not fight honorably. They do not keep their word when they force an agreement upon us. What are we to do?"

"If you're willing to change the way you fight and ally with other tribes I think I can train you to win and protect your land. It will take work and you will have to accept some Europeans in your land but I think we can find a way to live in peace."

"We must think on this and discuss it in council. Other tribes must agree also I think. Now, show me how you can teach us to win against their numbers and weapons."

"Chief, it will take many days to learn the new way. I can give a demonstration of some of the things I can teach but the learning is just the start. After the basics are learned, the warriors must practice the new ways AND use them properly or you will fail and be pushed out of your lands. This I have seen many times over in other lands."

The Chief called his council together and they talked about Bob's proposal. The resident Shaman went away and did his Shamanic thing (as Bob thought of it), communing with the Gods about the proposal. When he returned looking pale and weak, he called the warriors and Chief together to tell them of his vision. He said, "It is as Makes Women Scream says. The Gods want us to change and learn from him. I saw many young warriors fathered by Makes Women Scream and many battles won using his new ways of fighting. The people keep our lands and welcome the Europeans amongst us, neither changing the others way but living together in peace."

The Chief sat listening to the warriors talk about the Shaman's vision and discuss not only its meaning to them but its prediction of a change in their life. Soon he stood and said, "It shall be as the Shaman and Makes Women Scream say. We learn the new way to fight and protect our lands and way of life."

The next morning Bob was sitting in the sun after his breakfast when the warriors came to him. When he saw them coming he stood to meet them. The War Chief said, "We come to learn the new ways."

Bob set out to duplicate Army Basic Combat Training (BCT) as much as he could, as closely as he remembered. Of course there were many topics he couldn't teach such as marksmanship since they didn't have rifles and he had never used a bow and arrow but the braves were already well trained in hunting.

Bob spent his time on subjects he could teach such as hand to hand combat, tactics, strategy and, the hardest of all, getting the warriors to operate as a unit instead of trying for personal glory in one to one combat. Finally they began to see the reason for unit tactics, fire and maneuver, defensive fortifications and modern methods of combat tactics. It wasn't until he picked his best ten men and melded them into a small unit that decimated their opposition time after time that the other warriors saw the benefit of his teaching and began to accept it. Many still rankled under the new discipline however.

During his BCT classes, as he showed his superiority over the braves, Bob found again and again, he was presented with the opportunity to bed the local ladies. Since neither the braves nor his two women objected he gladly took the time to pleasure them.

Finally, Bob decided he could teach no more to the men of the village. He relaxed the training and only demanded enough training to keep them proficient. About what he estimated to be early December, once again, the village was attacked by whites. This time they were seen before the attack because of the sentries Bob insisted be posted. They were met well away from the village and stood no chance against the forest warriors using tactics several hundred years in advance of their disjointed attack. Not one of the attackers survived and only a handful of the Indians were injured.

Knowledge of this great victory spread across the land, striking fear into the hearts of the whites and hope in those of the Indians. Soon thereafter, Indians from several other tribes came to Bob asking for training. There were also several attacks by other tribes who feared the strength of Bob's tribe and hoped to eliminate the threat before it became too great.

All the attacks were met by defeat and the tribes were hit with severe retaliation. Soon the attacks stopped because of the danger to the attackers. They decided it was better to join and reap the benefits of the new way of fighting rather than suffer defeat and possible extinction of the tribe.

Most of the warriors coming to Bob for training brought their women with them. Most of those women, with their man's approval, warmed Bob's bed in hopes of becoming pregnant and bearing a warrior of Bob's ability. Many did so.

More and more Europeans attacked the Indians and were met with defeat. Soon, they began to bring British Army Units into the fray and Bob knew he needed better weapons to counter the small cannon being deployed against him. He knew how to make black powder and proceeded to do so, using it to make simple hand grenades. A time or two they managed to capture some cannons that they used against the attacking forces.

Bob was training his fledgling artillery corps when, once again, he found himself somewhere else. As before, he saw the flash of the explosion. This time it came about when one of the trainees dropped a torch used to light the cannon fuse into a canister of black powder.

WANDERING WIZARD

CHAPTER 3

When Bob came too after this jump he found himself laying in the middle of a dusty street with a half dozen men and two women standing or kneeling beside him. He could hear gunfire in the distance. There was a small pack in the dirt beside him. He was dressed in ragged, threadbare clothes singed by the explosion. Blood was trickling from a wound on his head and he felt as if he had been hit by a sledgehammer.

One of the women knelt beside him and began cleaning his cut while the man beside her said, "Are ye ok sonny? I never seed no one fly as far as you done when that there horse run ya down."

"I do not know. What happened?"

"Why them fellers was a robbin' tha bank and ye musta run right in front o them when they took off down tha street. They jus' run ye over. Ya musta bin movin' right fast because ya wasn't there then we seed ya flyin' away after they run ya down."

The woman and another man helped Bob to his feet, guided and supported him while he staggered over to a bench in front of a saloon. He sat down with a groan, almost a scream, and slumped down, resting his forearms on his knees and thighs. He looked around and saw an old frontier town if he was any judge. He wasn't sure, of course, of the day and year so decided to bite the bullet and asked, "Where am I and what day is it?"

The man and woman looked at each other and shook their heads before she said, "Why you're in Colorado City son although some folks'er callin' it Colorado Springs now. It is June 24th 1887. How could ya not know that? Are ya sure ya are alright?"

"Yes ma'am. I am fine. I hoped I was in Colorado Springs but I wasn't sure. I been moving since it got warm in late March. I didn't know the day because I been out and about so long I done lost track."

The woman relaxed somewhat, sighed and said, "Oh. I have heared other men say things like that. You look awfully young to be traipsin' around all alone like you are. How old are you son?"

Bob thought a moment and looked down at his body. He looked younger than he had been in his other locations. He decided to go easy on the facts and try to say whatever would seem to fit the times as best as he could. Finally, as the woman began to look worried, he said, "I do not rightly know Ma'am. I believe I am 15 or 16 but my pappy was a drinker and he was not rightly sure. Mam died when I was jus' a youngin and Pap and my sisters raised me. Pap, he died after my sisters married and left home, aheadin' to Californy I heard. There was not anything left for me at home after Pap died so I decided to come west and make my fortune."

"Well, you're in no shape to do anything right now. You come on inside with me and we will see what we can do to hep ya for a day or two. Maybe Sam will have something ya can do if ya needs work."

"Thank ya kindly ma'am," Bob said as he stood and followed what he now thought was probably a 'soiled dove' (Whore) into the saloon.

The man behind the bar looked up when they entered and said, "About time ya got here Mable. One a them fellers over there was askin' for ya."

Mable smiled and said, "Thank ya Sam. This here's... Oh, I do not know his name. This young man was run down by them robbers and I helped him in here. I told him ya might have work for him if he needed some. I know Timmy done left so's ya needs a new swamper." After she said that, she turned and began an exagerated sexy walk toward the men in the back of the room. When she got near them she said, "Hello fellas. I hear ya been askin' fer me?"

One of the men reached out and grabbed her, pulling her onto his lap. She squealed and let him plop her down before she wrapped her arm around him and bent to give him a kiss.

Bob turned back to the bar and looked at himself in the mirror while he eyed the bartender. He didn't recognize himself at all. He saw a dirty, scrawny young man with long hair and decrepit clothes staring back at him. He could 'feel' strange memories in his head underlying his own. It looked as if this time he had traveled into someone else's body when he jumped.

The bartender looked at Bob and said, "I need a swamper. Twenty five cents a day, ya sleep in the back room and I will feed ya. Take it or leave it."

Bob didn't take long to think about the offer. He decided to take it until he got his feet under him and figured out what to do now. He said, "I will take it, thank ya kindly sir."

"Well, take yer things into the back and find the broom. Clean the floor in here then wash out these mugs here, check tha spittoons. We open at 8 in the morning and close when the men leave."

"Yes sir."

Bob spent the rest of the day moving slowly. He was dizzy from the blow on the head and his whole body hurt from the hit by the horse and his fall into the street. The next two days weren't much better. He became friendly with Sam and Mable, learning about the area from them and what he overheard during the customer's conversations. He also suffered from the bully's that came and went. It seemed it was great fun to pick on the swamper, him being younger than them and, usually, much weaker.

To Bob's surprise, he noticed several people around using what was called magic in the other two times or places in which he lived. He also found he could listen in on their mental processes, their thoughts, in many cases. He could tell, usually just before it happened, when someone was going to pick on him or do something. He became good at avoiding those attacks. He was able to use his own abilities to prevent injury too.

During his trips around town on errands or for his personal needs Bob noticed several Indians (native Americans) coming and going. They acted like and were treated like anyone else on the street which he thought was strange given his memory of the way they were treated in his past. He saw a troop of cavalry come down the street one day and nearly half of the troopers were native American, including the officer leading.

The day he saw the cavalry, he found the time to ask Mable about them. She seemed shocked he would make a big thing about it and only marginally accepted his statement that he was just surprised because where he came from many had treated the Indians badly. They spent several minutes talking about past history of the country. He was pretty sure she didn't accept his statement he just hadn't had any schooling to learn some of the things of which he was ignorant.

One example was a comment he made about a civil war. Apparently, there had been no civil war in this country and slavery had been almost non existent. There were very few colored people ever brought into the Americas and consequently, it was rare to even see a black person. There were several Chinese, hispanics and, of course, native Americans however and she swore they were all treated equally. This conversation caused Bob to spend a lot of time reading papers and visiting the admittedly poorly stocked library researching his new home.

One day, Bob heard a couple of the men talking about a small town called Cripple Creek up in the mountains west and a little south of town. This jogged his memory about the town from his own time. Cripple Creek and a town near it called Victor, were in one of the largest gold producing areas of the United States in his reality. If he remembered correctly there was a large find at a place called Battle Mountain. The first gold was found near there in the early 1890 time frame. He decided he'd work and save here all winter and take off in the spring of 1888 for Cripple Creek. Maybe he could find some gold before the big discovery and make enough to at least live on while he was here. After this jump he decided he wasn't apt to stay here much longer than he had in the other places he ended up. It seemed there was a limit to how long he hung around.

By cold weather, Bob was an accepted fixture in the saloon and the regulars sort of adopted him. He picked up some extra coin from running errands for them and for the whores that worked out of the saloon. He even managed to get a little pussy from time to time. His first pussy there was as a reward for helping Mable. One of her john's was being rough with her and Bob stepped in.

Bob heard Mable screaming and crying up in her room and a man yelling. He ran upstairs to the rooms and opened her door to find the man hitting her. He said, "Lissen whore. I done paid ya to fuck me. Ya never said I hadta use yer pussy. i'magonna take yer ass and ya're not agonna stop me."

Mable was laying on the bed crying while her nose bled. Bob said, "She may not be able to stop you but I can. Get your ass out of here NOW!"

The man turned and began to laugh when he saw Bob. He said, "You little runt. you're not big enough to stop me either. Now get your ass out of here before I gets mad and kills ya. I paid for a piece a her ass and I am gonna have it."

"No ya are not. You gave up that right when ya hit her. And do not even think about taking your money back. She gets to keep it because of the beatin' ya gave her.

Bob had been practicing his self defense and exercising ever since he arrived. He knew he wasn't in top shape and wasn't as strong as he had been in his other lives but he had the knowledge and theory so believed he could take the man. When he stepped farther into the room the man charged at him. Bob brushed his fist aside, slid aside and behind him then grabbed his chin with one hand and the back of his head with the other. He gave a quick, hard twist and heard the satisfying but stomach churning crack. The man dropped at his feet and didn't move.

Just after the man dropped Sam and one of the men who worked for him came into the room. They saw Mable on the bed and the man laying at Bob's feet dead. Sam said, "What happened Bob?"

"That asshole was tryin' ta corn hole Mable and she told him no. He hit her and was tryin' ta force her when I got here. I told him to get out and he came for me so I had to take him down."

By then, the man with Sam had checked the man. He stood and looked at Bob strangely before he turned to Sam and said, "His neck's broke. He is not going to bother no one again."

Sam looked at Bob and said, "Do ya know who that was Bob?"

"No, should I?"

"Well maybe not but this could be trouble. That there is the Ox. I never heared him called anything else but he runs with the Tompkin's and they do not take kindly to anyone what messes with them or their men. We will try to make this look like an accident but if this gets out we will have trouble. You best get what ya wants offa him so we can get rid of tha body."

Sam and the other man pulled the Ox out of the room and carried him part way down the back stairs where they gave him a toss, letting him tumble the rest of the way down. Hopefully when he was found his death would be considered an accident since his body was hung up on the stairs and his neck was broken. It might be considered a robbery because his pockets were empty and his weapons gone but that might have been done after he died too. They went back into the upper area of the saloon, down the hallway and down the interior stairs to the bar room.

After they left, Bob went to help Mable clean up. He used what knowledge he had of medicine to check her. He said, "I will go downstairs and get some whiskey to clean your wounds. You need to take it easy the rest of the night and maybe tomorrow from the looks of things."

"I cannot do that. I need to work so I can pay Sam. How do you know about doctorin' anyway? You act like you know a lot about it."

"Well ma'am, before he took to the bottle my Pap said he was a doctor. I do not rightly know but some folks paid him to doctor them of times. I just learnt some things from him when I would see him doctorin' folks." He reached into his pocket and handed her $5.00 in silver dollars before continuing, "Here, take this to help ya out whilst ya heal."

"I cannot do that! Ya earned that money and ya needs it too."

"Mable, that is only part of what I got from tha Ox. Consider it pay fer what he done ta ya."

"Well if ya puts it like that. Thank ya kindly Bob."

Three days later Mable called Bob to her room early in the morning. She was naked when he knocked on the door. She told him to come in and when he saw her, he said, "Oh, I am sorry Mable. I thought ya said to come in." He turned and started to close the door.

"Bob," she said. "I did say come in. I want to reward ya for helpin' me when the Ox was whalin' on me. I do not have much money so I thought ya might be interested in a little sportin'. You ever been with a woman honey?"