Where Fire and Ice Mix Ch. 01

Author's note 1: I do not have an editor, and while I did go through and catch most spelling errors those I could not find the correct spelling for I marked with a **double asterisk**. Any others was missed or on purpose (As in an ascent).

Author's note 2: This is a first draft stile submission.

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Topaz, The Dwarven cleric, and Wanderleaf, the Elvin alchemist, had walked into their old friend and partner's, Gerrof the Wolven knight, house and looked around in astonishment. The last time they were there the entry looked like an official waiting room at the Imperial Palace – cold and formal, now, however, the place looked warm and inviting. There were the same couches and chairs but they had been reupholstered with a less formal pattern and had more stuffing put into them. The formerly matte white walls were repainted green with two shades of darker green dry brushed over them. The Red Oak table that had stood in the center of the room had been replaced with nice foot stools of an odd design. And scattered about were cushions and pillows of many fashions.

"Ah think Gerrof found his-self a Woman!" spouted Topaz as he looked around, amazed at the transformation.

"If he did," Replied Wanderleaf as he too looked around, "I'd like to barrow her. She has better design since then the three decorators that were recommended by the palace Chamberlin, and he has good taste."

Laughter resonated from the door to the rest of the house as Gerrof strode out to great them, "I'm going to tell Ghost that. He'll get a chuckle that you think he's a 'her'!" The two friends could only stair at their old friend. Gerrof use to think that going around in polished armor was the height of fashion and now he was greeting them in a stylish silk robe. Gerrof then snorted at the look his two friends shared and responded, "And he's as straight as Topaz and me. Sorry Wanderleaf."

The humanoid wolf then gave the two a stern look and another shock, "Another thing, He's a human from another world and if you treat him as a local human, I'm not going to save you," what he was alluding to was the fact that most humans were little more than slaves for the Beastens (Gerrof), Dwarves and Elves.

Topaz grabbed Gerrof's wrist, this was too much a different Gerrof, "What sort of spell did he put ye under, old friend?"

The Wolven smiled sadly down at the dwarf, "It's not his spell, and he kept it from being worse than it is," he then smiles, "But we can talk about that over super. Ghost is an excelent cook!"

They walked through the house to the dining room and they saw several new additions to the style of the rooms, including several new books, most of them on magic or cooking, in the formally nearly bare library.

The dining room table was another shock. It was weighed down with enough food for four times the amount of people that was going to sit down at the feast. Gerrof grimaced at his friends shocked visages, "Thanks to the curse I'm under, I eat as much as the three of us use to."

A new voice inserted it's thoughts, "Gerrof, I keep telling you that this is only a curse if you think of it so," and a huge, nearly seven foot tall, human slid through the doors from the kitchen carrying two huge platters. He was followed by two average, five foot six-ish, disgruntled human maids.

One of them exasperatedly spoke her mind, "Master Ghost, it is our job to move the platters into the dining hall! Please let us."

Ghost grinned, "But why should you bother when I can move twice as much as the two of you in a go?"

The slave woman, although Gerrof did treat his slaves more as precious children that did most of the house work, he kept slave and thought of humans that way, so that this Ghost was not spoke of something strange, started to explode, then spotted Topaz and Wanderleaf and paled.

Ghost, expecting a scathing come back, looked at the woman and followed her fearful gaze to the two guests then looked back at her, "Sara, you know I demand of all of my and Gerrof's slaves to speak to me as an equal," he then glared at the two new people, "And if someone else don't like it they have to deal with me!"

Topaz and Wanderleaf both decided that they liked this Ghost, although it was too soon to trust him yet.

Topaz looked at Sara, whom he had known from birth as he had known Gerrof's family and stated, "Girl, what has gotten inta ya? Ya know that I like yerself when yer sassy!"

Sara sighed, "When Lord Gerrof was abducted by that witch, us slaves got took by Lord Gourhaust, who used all the girls between sixteen and thirty as sex toys and beat us whenever he wanted," and then she broke down crying.

Topaz looked murderous, "Where is this bastard!? I'll make sure he'll never touch a female again!"

Ghost decided then that he liked the dwarf, he didn't necessarilytrustthe guy, but he did respect him, "Too late. Just after I stolen his slaves out from under his nose, his house suddenly blew up," and he winked, "He must have had something volatile in his basement."

Wanderleaf laughed, he had heard of the case, Duke Gourhaust was as dirty as they came, but there was no proof of anything illegal. His death by an 'accident' was helpful to the court. "Brilliant! It couldn't have happened to a better person!" The elf turned to the human, "They have determined that he had an improperly stored, and illegal, Demon Orb that broke! How'd you arrange something like that?"

"If I did something like that, not saying I did, I would have casted a Twist of Fate spell and let whatever that was going to happen choose then to happen." Ghost stated, "There would be no way to prove anything as it was going to happen anyhow."

"That were brilliant!" Topaz chortled.

"But I didn't admit to doing it," Ghost stated.

"Ghost relax," Gerrof intervened, "Once a decision is reached, only an Emperor it happened under can call for a review and that won't happen. And even the scumbags he dealt with won't avenge him as they would respecthowhe was murdered. It would only enhance your, what do you call it... Street Credit?" at Ghost's nod he continued, "If this was found out by them." He then sighed and said in disgust, "Not that I understand why you'd want to be respected by crooks..."

"I can't explain to you so you'd understand, but on my world I was a good guy that the bad guys respected and aided to get the worse bad guys off the streets." He grinned, "I worked with the 'meat and potatoes' crooks to get the 'Black Bag' criminals." At their confusion he said, "Normal thieves helped me with murders, rapists and other scumbags that would interfere with their lives, but to do that they would have to respect me as one of them." He waved at the table, "Foods down, let's eat."

They sat and started to dine on the varied items on the table, some of which were strange and the two visitors were told that those were variations on the **quesean** from Ghost's world. Topaz decided to get a few answers, "So Sara spoke o' a witch taking ya?"

Gerrof nods, "It was Tara Crackstone."

"The Bitch Witch," Ghost expanded with a growl.

Gerrof looked at his new friend, "I still think what you did to her was a bit harsh."

Topaz and Wanderleaf looked at one another in shock, Gerrof was a bit vindictive, so for him to protest the treatment of someone who had attacked him was odd.

Ghost snorted, "I gave her a warning about casting spells didn't I? All I did was convince her spell to find a different target, she was the one who cast it," then he nods to Gerrof's old friends, "But we've skipped to the end of the tale and left them bewildered," he turns back to them, "To start the tale I have to tell you a bit about my world, which is hard because of the lack of context, but Gerrof got it and he tells me you two are smarter than him."

Ghost looks at the food he's eating for a moment organizing his thoughts, "On my world there are devices that can hold as much information as is the library of this house that are as small as this piece of meat," he holds up a cut that was the size of a Blackberry, "And the bigger devices could often hold even more knowledge."

"He has one here," Gerrof butted in, "I'll get it. It's one of the bigger one though."

As he went to the library Ghost stated, "It's a big portable one that I had with me when I caught up to Tara. It holds as much as some standard table top units. I'm converting it into a spell book, since I've been forced into magic by certain events," He sighs, "I know how most view Mages."

Wanderleaf nodded sympathetically, "I'm an alchemist and People dislike the fact that I can make Magical Effects."

"Try living a life that you can understand the varywordsof the magic language," Ghost grumped.

"Now Ghost," Gerrof soothed as he walked in with what looked like a shallow, black box that had rounded edges and looked like it could, maybe, only hold a few dozen sheets of paper, "We've talked about this. You said you wouldn't be bitter about this."

"Generally I'm not," Ghost sighed, "But that guy yesterday..."

"He had asked you to do like you did for his neighbor, but refused to pay you for a 'moments work' for you," Gerrof stated, "And he was pissed that you refused and that the neighbor's crop is blight free and his is mostly dead. The Commerce Commissioner was on your side as you were only asking ten percent over expenses."

"Five Hundred an acre."

Topaz snorts, "The common is a thousand an acre."

"Well the guy is out trying to convince everyone that I made a deal with 'dark, otherworldly forces' to be so powerful."

Gerrof chuckles, "The court guards are countering with the fact that you admitted to being an otherworldly force and that you said that you could cure the miser's fields for a fraction of what it would usually cost him and that he sounded insulted."

"We heard 'bout that comin' here." Topaz grinned

Wanderleaf laughed, "The rumor is that there is an 'Otherworldly Monster' that is so powerful and good that he only charges enough to feed himself for magic rendered. And that he is willing to help those who are rude to him."

"Just don't attack him er yer in fer a world o' hurt, but ye'll live through it, want to er not!" Topaz finishes uproariously.

Ghost relaxes, "Anyhow," he sighs pointing to the computer, "Those also can connect to an information network that spans my world, allowing us to talk, exchange information, buy and sell stuff and entertain each other without ever needing to really meet."

"Sounds like it's too easy ta steal and cheat people," pronounced Topaz.

"It can be if you know how to talk to a [[computer]]," he said while pointing at his computer and saying the word in English, which on the world he was on was the language of magic, "They are a bit like your Golems and only follow orders. But we've put those orders in codes so just not anyone can fully command the things. I won't go into detail as it'll take years for you to learn the basic language. It did take me that long to do the same, so please don't think I'm under valuing you brain power..."

Topaz nods, "What yer sayin' is: it's like any specialized job, ya just don't jump inta it."

Ghost relaxes and nods, "Most of what I did involved tracking real nasty people on that network and telling those who were suppose to handle them where to look. While I mostly obeyed the laws of that world, sometimes it was too easy to put a toe over the line and get away with it, so I developed relationships with some folks on the other side of the line. Although they knew I was a ... constable, they felt they were safe as I couldn't tell on them for being someplace they shouldn't have been when I only knew because I was there too, so they often gave me tips on those who disgusted them. And that is how I learned about a total bitch named Tara who was buying up illegal weapons and other dangerous items and planning a slaughter. I told my team that I worked with and we started tracking her.

Ghost hung his head, and spoke sadly, "We found her at an illegal swap meet... ah... that is an informal Black Market where one can trade goods as well as money-"

"We know what a swap meet is," Wanderleaf interrupts, "we were surprised that criminals have them too."

Ghost shrugs, "We invaded with some of our military trained ... constables, expecting heavy resistance. Oh boy did we find it... She had been back and forth several times by that point. She had found that I was hunting her and that the only reason that she could avoid me was that she could come to this realm. One of those near misses she had saw me and liked my looks. She was impressed with my mind. She had a powerful force of Beastens and a bunch of prepared spells loaded into wands, amulets, rings and the like. She killed everyone except me and my girlfriend, the team leader of the assault team!" His voice was now the growl of an angry griffon and when his head came up his eyes were the same way, "That animal had her mind controlled Beasten rape her in front of me while she whispered her plans to make me her mind washed general and lover as she rubbed herself against me!" his hair exploded into flames! He rose from his seat lifting his clawed hands and roared, "And then she sucked the life-force out of her until my girlfriend was dead!"

At this moment, when Topaz and Wanderleaf was wondering how deep in the shit they were stuck, Gerrof pointed the palms of his hands at Ghost and shot a blast of freezing silk at his head. Ghost immediately was put out and he collapsed, stuttering, "S-s-su-sorry."

Gerrof nods and states, "While he calms down a bit I'll tell you how I got into this tale. And by the end you'll know how we did what just happened...

Gerrof had been chasing the damned Elvin Sorceress for two years at that point. The point where the tables had been turned. And he was wishing that he had asked his friends Topaz and Wanderleaf for help, but Wanderleaf had just been appointed trade advisor to a critical ally and Topaz was deep in the mountains, talking to his God, when Gerrof was asked to hunt her.

So there he was, mounted on his Skeet (A two legged lizard that was used on their world instead of the horse as that was an Intelligent, two legged Beasten), clad in his steel armor and cussing the incompetence of his three companions when he was hit on his bare shoulder and knocked off of the Skeet.

As he stood up he ripped the dart from his shoulder and looked at it for a second as he realized that he was getting sleepy. He then looked up to see that his idiot backup, two Rattens and a Squirrellen, where charging a massive human who was armed with odd looking weapons. Gerrof tried to yell at them to stop, but couldn't get the words past his tong before the man had aimed his weapons at one of the Rattens and the Squirrellen and pulled the triggers, blowing the poor fools' brains out and repeating the process with the third fool as he realized the danger too late.

Gerrof belatedly reached for his sword as Tara strode out of the bushes and praised the human as he looked at her with helpless hate. It was then that Gerrof realized that the man had had no choice but was the puppet of the twisted witch the he was tracking. Then Gerrof passed out.

Sometime later, Gerrof awoke in a cell with the human sitting despondently in the opposite corner.

"I'm sorry for darting you and killing your friends," the man stated sadly, "That Bitch..." he paused and looked apologetically at Gerrof, "ah... sorry, you probably call your women that..."

"Not unless Iwantto be bitch slapped into next week," Gerrof replied.

The human grinned sadly, "Ok, anyway she used this collar to cause my body to do what she wanted it to do. Call me Ghost."

"I'm Gerrof, any idea what she wants from me?"

Ghost sighs, "Same as me I'm afraid. She's turning her worst enemies into sex slave Generals for herself. So what didyoudo to piss her off?" a knowing look, "Lead the hunt for her for two years as she jumped to my world when you got close? Because that's what I did."

Gerrof grins wolfishly, "You know that scar she has under her left eye? I cut her there."

"Congratulations, I shot a nut job that she was fucking regularly and cared for enough that I got hate mail from her. I had to shoot him, he was about to kill a hostage and I was the only one with a shot."

Gerrof nods.

Three days of male bonding later, after they had found that they liked each other, they were dragged up to the casting room near the top of the Sorceress's tower and chained to two heavy frames. And then two cages were wheeled in.

In the cage in front of Gerrof was an Ice Spider, a giant arachnid that lived in frozen places that could shoot freezing webbing. It jumped against the bars of its cage when it saw the tied up Wolven, thinking that he was food as it was hungry. In the cage in front of Ghost was an Immortal Griffon, which was the front end of a phoenix with the body of an Earth tiger, but the moment that Ghost saw the griffon he started to coo at and praise it.

At first Gerrof and the two animals looked at Ghost as if he was insane and then the Griffon started to preen. Then the spider started to click to get some of the strange, nice human's attention, and he started to talk to it as well.

The sorceress came in and stared at Ghost as he befriended the animals, she then smiled, "I'm glad you are befriending the animals as you will share mind space with them as I'll be using a legend from your world, Officer Sam 'The Ghost' Ward."

Gerrof considered the fact that Ghost never told him his full name and was a little upset, until Ghost growled, "It's Officer Ward to you, Bitch!" and he realized that some things are a level of trust and that Ghost let him use his 'name at arms' was a sign of alliance or even friendship and perhaps only family ever got to call him Sam.

Tara sneered, "Soon if I want to call you 'Feathers' you will think it's your name as I'll wipe your memories after turning you into a [[Were]] Griffon!" she then looked at Gerrof, "The humans' of his world are the only known intelligences on his world, but they have plenty of legends of others. The one I'm barrowing is of a race of people that can turn from a person to an animal and back again. They can stop in between in some, and this is what I chose to have happen. Their bite, when in either shifted state, can infect new people with this state. I liked that so I'm making it so. The person gain strength and power from their beast, But I decided that their beast should be the best match for the person, so I'm making that happen even though it was a slight pain in the ass to figure out how, rather than having it cause the person to become what the one who bites him was. This way, if I decide to have one of you bite me later; I get to become more of what I am."

"You want to becomemoreof a snake in the grass?" Gerrof queried.

Ghost laughed, "I'd applauded, but my hands are tied."

She spun and slapped Ghost across the face, "Shut your mouth you murderer! You should be happy that I like your body after you killed my man!"

Ghost laughed, "[[Honey]], I wasn't after you that day! You weren't even on my [[radar]]! Morris Talbert, 'your man', was! And he didn't love you! You were just another woman that fell for his scam! As soon as he hooked one more 'lover' he was going to have all of you fight and kill each other, and then he'd kill the 'winner' and walk away laughing!"

Tara's face went purple from the rage in her and she snapped her hand in his direction and chanted, [[Truth tell you now to from ten minutes. Not lies pass lips your, Truth be told only!]] she paused as the threads of power that she had summoned with her words settled into Ghost, and then she demanded, "Tell me the truth! You were lying earlier weren't you?"