Gabriel Elder book II of the Warlock Series
Chapter 5: Oz Ponders

Oz sat and reviewed the events of the day. He was worried. Everything about the surprise visit from Dr. Connors was wrong. Shortly after he left, two helicopters full of mercenaries had landed looking for Zeus. Was he their advance scout? Was he working with the white Alpha? How had Dr. Connors managed to tap into the compound’s video feed? It was the only way he could have seen what was going on, but how?

During the attack years ago, when Stazia had been infected, Oz was away from the compound and Zeus had been lured away. This was not a coincidence. The white Alpha had only come to the compound when it knew both Zeus and Oz were gone. Had the Alpha and Dr. Connors both figured out how to tap into the compound’s defenses or had they been working together all along?

Today, Oz had been gone when Zeus returned. That left the injured warlock all alone and somehow Dr. Connors knew it. He was genuinely surprised when he saw Oz in the hallway. He had expected the little man to be gone. Oz had been gone since he was knocked unconscious by Gabriel. He had been automatically pulled back to the other side. His kind were only able to stay on this side, as they called it, consciously and willingly. If somehow, one of them were to be injured or die on this side, they’d be pulled back to the other side before they reverted to their natural form. That was the key to why they had never been discovered, nor would they, because they simply disappeared if something happened to them in this dimension.

After many years of his own guilt and many questions about how and why the original attack had occurred, Oz had learned much. The original report which lured Zeus away from the compound, at one of the rare times when Oz was gone, came from within the Warlock Council. One of the members had created the report and made sure it was vital a master warlock, such as Zeus, would be needed to deal with it.

Oz did not believe in coincidences. His many centuries on Earth had taught him they were too rare to occur as often as some believed. No, something rotten was going on inside the council and he had pushed to make sure Zeus became a part of it. He was prevented by the ‘others’ from becoming directly involved in earthly matters, but he could be as indirectly involved as he wanted.

Sitting in Zeus’s bedroom, watching the shifted warlock sleep, Oz was suddenly aware his visitor had returned and was at the edge of the woods watching. Oz knew they were being watched, perhaps not him directly, but the compound was being watched. Someone was out there, on the edge of the forest, northwest of the compound. He couldn’t tell who or even what it was, but it was watching and waiting, and Oz knew it.

Oz had been aware of the entity before this. It had been coming for years, ever since Gabriel arrived, but the question was why? He didn’t feel threatened by its presence, but it was there, constantly watching and waiting. Once things settled down, Oz planned on a visit to the forest both west and north of the compound to investigate. Once there, he would replace out what or who it was, that watched so diligently.

Outside, the interior lights on one of the helicopters came on. Someone was trying to reach the crew via radio. Unfortunately for those on the other end, there weren’t any crew members left on the grounds to take the call. Oz had dropped them off where they could be found, many miles from the compound. They would receive the medical attention they required, but they wouldn’t tell anyone where they had been injured, or how, not that any of them really knew. Of course, the big one Gabriel had taken down would know who did it, but his ego would never let him tell anyone the truth about what happened.

Oz smiled, to travel such a distance with that many bodies was a strain, but not beyond the abilities of the tiny man. If he had any amount of ego at all, he would want the ‘others’ to know just how strong he had become, but it wasn’t his way. He was content to know he had managed it and could do even more if need be.

He knew the ‘others’ were keeping a close watch on all he did. In the distant past, many of his kind had traveled to this realm to observe and to experience this world. Now, very few did. They grew bored easily as they saw the creatures on this plane of existence as mundane and rarely interesting. Oz understood, but he didn’t agree. He had stayed long enough to learn to watch the many creatures and among them, none was more interesting than the humans.

From their proclaimed morals and ethics to their many varied religious practices and beliefs, they were an amazing and deeply surprising species. Their use and abuse of the environment and its resources, their mating rituals, and their politics made them very contradictory and often defied common sense. Still, all of it amazed Oz. In many ways, he was something of an anthropologist. He loved studying humans, he always had.

He kept the ‘others’ informed as to what he was seeing and experiencing and they seemed satisfied, but they constantly warned him against becoming too involved. His kind did not condone violence. They would act to protect themselves, but nothing more. They were extremely intelligent and naturally inclined to be explorers and watchers.

With their abilities, they could visit any dimension they chose. With the number of dimensions in this universe being infinite and even more universes beyond this one, those like Oz could do all the exploring they could ever manage.

Unlike the others of his kind, Oz had learned to love in the same way humans loved. He loved Zeus and he had loved both his wife and his daughter. Now he loved Gabriel as well, and in some ways, he even loved Apollo. Oz had learned that opening yourself up and letting humans into your heart could be a most wonderful experience, but a painful one too.

He had discovered this all too well the night Stazia was infected and her mother was killed. It was the most painful thing Oz had ever felt. On the outside he was very stoic, but on the inside, he was devastated. No matter how much he acted like nothing mattered and he wasn’t attached to them, inside him was a different story. Considering he did indeed have three functioning hearts, he could hardly be blamed for feeling as much as he did.

It even hurt him to think he was being less than honest with his ‘family’. He wished he could tell Zeus and even Gabriel the truth, but to do so would cause the “others’ to recall him and probably ban him from this dimension for at least a century.

Oz had grown strong enough and he could probably resist them for a while, but they would eventually win. There were just too many of them. He would be deeply saddened if he was pulled from this dimension. So, he would keep his secret, and do what he could to help them grow. He hoped to one day see the end of the shifters and the virus, they were not natural to the planet and they should be eliminated.

Like any plant, animal or disease not native to a place, this virus could eventually lead to the end of all human kind. Oz knew the people infected were in fact people, but there were dangers in keeping them alive. There was always the chance the virus they carried could run rampant, out of control, and lead to the destruction of the natural humans. Oz couldn’t allow that to happen.

Oz heard a sound and opened his eyes. Zeus was stirring. What was the master warlock going to do? Oz was going to make sure he didn’t leave this room, it was too dangerous for both Zeus and anyone he might encounter. As he watched, the shifter stood and slowly walked out of the damaged cell. It stopped and stared at the little man sitting crossed legged on the floor in front of the door.

The shifter reached up and brushed its long hair back over its head. Oz noticed a thick streak of black hair running down the creature’s back. It was not there before Breena had healed the master warlock. The brushing of the hair was an extremely human thing to do. As he continued watching, the shifter nodded to Oz and crossed the room and slowly climbed into bed. The enormous beast made the massive bed look like children’s furniture.

The shifter pulled the blankets up around its neck, this left its feet hanging out, exposing the creature’s thick claws which extended well past its toes. Oz found the behavior very curious. It prompted a flood of thoughts and possibilities about why Zeus was acting this way. He liked a good puzzle and this was going to be one.

Obviously Breena’s treatment had something to do with it, but was it permanent? Could she cure him with additional healings? Would there possibly be a way to use blood or cells from a ‘cured Zeus’ to produce a cure for others infected with the virus? What would happen if Gabriel used his new energy on a shifter? Could he heal even better than Breena, or would he destroy them? For that matter, what exactly could Gabriel do with his new energy?

What forms would Gabriel end up manifesting? Oz had studied the Scythians enough to know they usually had two forms, sometimes three. One was human, one was animal and sometimes, one was elemental. It was often their elemental forms which were their most powerful, but there were probably exceptions. He had also discovered the elemental forms were the hardest to maintain for any length of time.

In Tibet, Oz had witnessed a female Scythian change from human to an ermine, a small, white furred rodent resembling a ferret. Then she turned into a fire tornado, burning everything around her when she was cornered by a small band of hunters intent on doing bad things to her. She had burned all of them to a crisp, but their horses were completely unharmed. The experience had completely exhausted her.

He saw her lying on the ground after the experience, crying because of what she had been forced to do. Even in such an extreme predicament, the woman felt sorrow for having killed the evil men. It was then he realized the Scythians were much more like his kind than humans were. Over the centuries, he had come across several groups of the strange creatures. Usually in extremely isolated and desolate places, far from most humans, but not always. He had helped a Scythian once, a long time ago, in the city of London on the Island of Great Britain in Europe.

It was in the Middle Ages and the city had become dreadfully crowded and yet, quite exciting for the time. Oz had gone there to observe how the humans would handle the rapid growth. He also wanted to see how they adapted to the population density.

One night he saw a group of drunkards trying to feed an enormous rat to a group of dogs. As they attempted to bite it, the rat kept turning to stone. Oz had intervened and saved the rat by buying it from the men. They were eager for another drink and gladly sold it to the stranger. He took it immediately and released it at the edge of the city.

While Oz watched from a distance, the rat transformed into a young man who staggered off, anxious to be away from the city. Oz wasn’t sure why the Scythian was in the crowded city to begin with, but he was sure he wasn’t likely to return.

Unlike the secretive Scythians, Oz had remained undetected for several millenniums on this planet and with a little luck, he might make it a few more. Soon though, he might have to make a decision about how far he was willing to go to help his ‘family’.

Looking at the shifted Zeus, he already knew the answer. For the first time, the master warlock was sleeping comfortably and acting more human than shifter. Oz silently returned to his room. He felt confident Zeus was not a threat, at least not right now. He would have to keep watch in the future to see if the treatment Breena had given the master warlock was permanent or temporary.

Once in his room, with the door secured, Oz slowly transformed back to his true form. He could hold the shape of the tiny little man indefinitely, but he just liked how it felt to be himself. As he lay down on the massive stone slab, his feet still hanging over the edge, he reminded himself to be more careful when he showed his true form. Gabriel had caught a glimpse of him in the upper hallway, but not enough to allow him to feel sure about what he saw.

During the attack, the little man had transitioned back and forth from his true form to that of the little man he presented as Oz in order to surprise the mercenaries. Seeing him in his true form had been the only thing to keep them from attacking immediately. Even after seeing shifters, a glimpse of Oz in his true form could still shock most humans into immobility. For a few of the mercenaries, the ones which still had a bit of humanity left, seeing the image of the tiny man was enough to cause them to drop their guard momentarily, allowing him to quickly incapacitate them.

Oz didn’t need to sleep, and he didn’t need a bed or the slab to lay on, but he had been in this dimension so long, he enjoyed acting like he belonged here. Instead of sleeping, he would continue to ponder the many questions he had. However, he wasn’t the only one interested in what was going on inside the mansion.

The watcher in the woods continued to keep watch patiently over the compound. He came as often as he could, which wasn’t nearly as often as he wanted too, but he needed to know if the boy was okay. He spent hours watching, listening, hoping for just a glimpse of the one called Gabriel. Always on a night like this, with the full moon high overhead, he watched. He needed to know if the moon had any effect on the young warlock.

The watcher hadn’t seen him tonight, but he could smell him. He had been through the woods and crossed into the back of the compound. The scent was strong so it had been as recent as this afternoon, and he was not alone. The grey wolf was with him, as he always was, but there was another scent too. It was a wolf’s scent, but not just a wolf. Ah, that would be Breena’s scent.

There was an ache to be a part of Gabriel’s life. A desire to be near Gabriel, just to talk to the young man. But, there was also a great fear of being rejected. The watcher in the woods had stayed away from the child for far too long. How could he ever expect Gabriel to accept him? The tears began to flow from the pain of doing what he thought was the right thing.