First ambush

“I'm Raymond,” the burly man said pleasant enough. “Nice to meet you.” He stood a little over six foot. A tight black t-shirt covered his broad shoulders and barreled chest. He wore a medium length beard kept neat, and his saddle brown hair was cropped short. It looked as though he trimmed his arms as well. Through the fur olive skin lay below. In all respects, he was a bear.

Jueqel had not given his name. “Sorry, if I'm not being very sociable, but I haven't had much sleep, and I'm a bit cranky.” He had felt their presence ever since he had arrived. Their psychic activity was constant. All that muscle requires constant feeding, he thought contemptuously.

“Good enough,” Raymond did not seem put off by this.

Jueqel raised his eyebrows. Raymond must have been told to expect hostility.

“This here is Nita.”

The woman next to him nodded. She stood as tall as Raymond, tone and not nearly as broad, but built to tackle. Skin not much lighter than Raymond's hair. She also wore a tight t-shirt, revealing much muscle underneath. Hair draped on either shoulder, so white it looked like mist.

Compared to Jueqel's slender frame, they outweighed him nearly four times over. Jueqel had to remember they needed him. “How is it that I am to help?”

Raymond said, “simple. Once we get near him, we combine our strength, and move in. You will hang back to stay out of harms way.”

Jueqel's old fear peaked its jagged tip into him. He quelled it quickly enough, but the damage had been done. He thought of Breyn's offer to stay. When he refused her, she accepted it without hesitation. He got the impression she didn't like it here anymore than he did. “Are we ready then?”

“I thought you might be,” said Raymond. Raymond pressed his eye shut, and the air next to them shimmered.

Breyn appeared, “ready?”

Jueqel snapped, “yes. Lets go.”

The world around Jueqel deserted him and came back again newly formed. Jueqel thought teleportation had to have been the oddest form of psychic ability ever discovered. Until Dr. Oragwain brought his experiments into the history of psychics, few porters ever existed.

The rest stop they found themselves in had no vehicles parked. The lonely stretch of highway was a hundred yards away. The sun had not yet risen, but signs of daylight promised to come soon. Jueqel sensed no other psychics nearby.

“That monster will be here soon,” Breyn said with a hint of skepticism. “Dru is watching us.”

Soon enough, power shivered through Jueqel like wind blown through a tree. “He's coming.”

Raymond and Nita joined hands and stretched theirs out to Jueqel, “join.”

“Wait a minute,” Jueqel got the idea he was about to go through that again. “I'm to stay back, and you guys are to take him on.”

“Yes, that's what we're doing.”

Breyn said, “you'd better do it quick. Here he comes.” She vanished at that.

Jueqel felt ready to suppress abilities, but he wasn't ready to do it while melded with any member of Yogan.

Nita spoke, “Jueqel, we need your help in this.”

Jueqel felt something was wrong. Was it a trap? “What if something goes wrong?”

“What? Like you not helping?”

Jueqel bristled, “alright, but only because you have me in a hard place.” No time to argue, he grabbed their hands.

They pulled him in.