Blackstone - The Temple of Trials

Tense Negotiations

"By the Great Gods of Azor, you shall not have what you seek!" Bal shouted and sprang up from his trench. He ran towards the Grays.

"No, Bal, wait!" David said and leapt up out of his trench. He ran towards Bal and the Grays. I shook my head and ran after him.

The Grays whipped out two wicked looking laser pistols. SWICK! They fired concentrated streams of energy at Bal who dodged and leapt behind the barn. The energy blasts hit the barn and it instantly caught on fire. The cattle bellowed in fear.

David and I reached for our Etheric Knives. We whipped them out and activated them.

David held up his hands, "We just want to talk about what you're doing here."

The Grays looked at each other. They raised their laser pistols at us.

"I've had enough of this," I said and sent a stream of Dragon Fire at one of the Grays who pressed a button on one of their devices. The Grays shimmered and teleported back into their ship. The doors closed and the silver craft began spinning. It rose into the air.

"We can't let them get away," David said.

I shot a grappling line at the spacecraft. It sank into the silver surface of the craft and held fast.

"Grant, what in the name of Orion are you doing?" David said.

"I'll see you around," I said and shot off into the sky as the craft rocketed away.

I held on for dear life as the Gray's swooped and dived in an effort to shake me off. We rose into the sky and the craft gained altitude shooting into a thick bank of clouds. I wouldn't be able to hold on much longer. There was only one thing left for me to do. I summoned the Wend and threw a bolt of Dark Matter at what I hoped was the engine room of the spacecraft. The bolt of dark matter hit the spinning craft and instantly it shuddered and lurched out of the sky, diving back down towards the ground and Jeremiah's ranch. I released my grappling line, dropped Out of Time and floated back down to the ground.

David and Bal ran up to me.

"Grant, are you all right?" David asked.

"Yeah, I think so."

"By the Great Gods of Azor, that was amazing Eliza Grant. You certainly have the heart of a warrior. I shall tell tales of this to my people," Bal said and clapped me on the back.

"Thanks Bal, now let's find out about our little gray guys," I said and dusted myself off.

We ran up to the silver space craft just as the compartment door opened. The two Grays stumbled out. David and I raised our razor phones and pointed them at the Grays who raised their hands in the universal gesture of I give up.

"All right, that's better. Now we'd like to ask you guys a few questions if you don't mind," David said politely.

Over the next hour, we got the lowdown on what the Grays were up to. We found out about their secret underground base in the mountains. We also learned that they had been abducting humans and using them to perform experiments on. It was the same old story wherever the Grays went. They always were probing and prodding in an attempt to advance their species genetically. When Jeremiah found out about the human abductions he was livid but fortunately David calmed him down and explained that we could use the two Grays to infiltrate the secret base and rescue the people who had been abducted. Jeremiah gave us the go ahead and we proceeded with our plan.

"By the Great Gods of Azor, are you sure this plan will work, David Ross?" Bal said when David explained what we were doing.

"Trust me, Bal. Here's what we are going to do. Eliza and I will force our two Gray friends here to pilot the ship back into the mountains where they have their secret base. Once there we'll find out where Jeremiah's people are and rescue them. There is only room for Eliza and I in the ship so you'll have to stay here, Bal," David said.