Sliver

Loyal,outstretching his arms,holds them back,each,still in the time stream up to their ankles.They watch as the two tree harvesters march back to their truck.Loyal sees a gleam.A shimmer.A sliver of fault in the time around them.

"Sssh,"he says,"This is where it happens.A car pulls up behind the truck.An attractive woman steps out carrying a paper bag of quickly purchased food.She throws a silver bundle to each man,"Here,"she says,"I thought you two might be hungry.A Whopper OK?"

Anti/Wade

LMDC,Tipid and Loyal are in a phase induced by LMDC's gifts called ,'The Time Stream'.It is like the anti-now.They can not be seen or felt(for the most part-by most people).To traverse the stream you have to float or swim like a fish through it.But when you get close to your target(for that is what it is- a target),it is like getting closer and closer to shore and you have to brace yourself as you wade yourself through it.

Auntie

As seemingly spirits,they move closer as the man finishes sawing the stump.Walking towards the truck with a younger man,they listen as he speaks on the way to the vehicle,"Hello,"says the older man,"Auntie Em,Auntie Em,I don't think we are in Kansas anymore."

"Screw you,man.I know.I know."

"They are speaking English,"exclaims Tipid,"But I have no idea what they are saying."

Sinner

Loyal moves the holy trio not so much as forward as towards.Not so much as much to sinner as to the 'wronger',"There,"he says,"The one removing the stump of the tree.It is him."

Saint

The time spiral starts reversing itself,now,it is going forward in history.The Saint Louis Cardinals have just defeated the Detroit Tigers in the World Series when Loyal says,"This is it.Go back to the spring.Further east.

Differ

LMDC,Tipid,and Loyal are a holy trinity of timeline exploration.LMDC's natural abilities are channeled and shared via Tipid.And no one is as capable of reading timeline fluctuations as Loyal.It is more then being just fluent in history.Loyal can automatically tell-in ways he himself does not understand-how singularities can differ if,when and where they occur.

Catastrophe

Now wavers.The Third Kingdom goes flashing by.So does the Spice Revolt,The Second Kingdom.The death and birth of Al-Yeshua.The Spreading,The Nuking of The '3'[Mecca/The Vatican & The Great Church];The Swarm Catastrophe,The Friendship Wars,The Grafting,The Expounding To Colonize,The Second American Civil War;The Elvis,The founding of Rockenrol{Things are getting tighter,now},The San San Earthquake,WWIII,The Iraqi-Hurricane Katrina-War,Bosnia,The Persian Gulf War.. the swirl stops...and starts moving forward...

Melt

Tipid places an open palm against LMDC's face and then grasps hands with Loyal,"We are Kindred,"she says,"We are Kindred,"chant both LMDC and Loyal back to the shadow woman.
"Let go of the now.There is no future.There is no past.All are one.Melt away the concept of time.Melt away the concept of self.You are 'I AM'.

French

The chamber's door opens and Loyal walks in.Though he has a smile on his face,his eyes are showing deep concern,"French and Spanish,girl,"Loyal says,hugging her,"Are you OK?"

LMDC shakes her head,yes,nervously.

"This could be rough.Are you sure that you want to do this?"

"Yes,father,please,I have too."

"OK.Tipid,do what has to be done.Lumber,do not let us be disturbed."

Reticent

"Are you afraid of what you might find,Tipid?Is that why you are willing to wait for my father?"
"Unlike dimensional shifts,time shifts can be very reticent.Your father is very good at...how do you say it...reading between the lines."

Ritual

"Loyal is still at the Al-Yeshua ritual,"proclaimed Lumber in her usual foreboding tone,"But I have asterisked and highlighted his link and he will be here shortly."
"Will you read me,Tipid?"
"I am sure your father will want me to,but I will not do so until I am told.You are the 'Time Sensitive'.There is danger in going too deep.I will need your father to ride with me."
"OK."

Anger

I:::
"I feel anger radiating from you,LMDC,are you OK?"
"Yes,Tipid,I....suddenly...just felt light headed...for a second."
"Can you say what caused it?"asks Lumber,concerned.
LMDC sits down in the ground chair,"Time may have changed.Please call my Father."

Kindred

"So,then,do we go to SR-090?"
"Look around;Sheba is dead,Loyal is dying,we are betrayed,about to be re-boarded,and Am's fleet is gone....Tipid.Can you make the SL-D2 work?"
*There is an explosion that rocks the ship.*
"Yes-there is an 89% assurance that I can succeed."
"Then get lost."
"We are Kindred."
"Yes,we are Kindred,rockenrol."
"Rockenrol,"and with that,Tipid vanishes.

Sticky

"He did not die,"answers Tipid,"Nor,in fact,even get hurt.But he is not,I believe,still with Katrina."
Etiti sooths his hands over Loyal,"What does that mean?Is he the one or not?"
Lumber,who is encasing LMDC,states,"He is in SL-D2.There could only be the other in SR-090."
"It is,"whispers Loyal in a painful moan,"Another sticky wicket that we have gotten ourselves into."

Finally

"She is 'VI',"Tipid says lifting her hand from LMDC's body,"And the Queen 'is' dead.I do not believe she killed her,though her 'E-M Log' does not go back far enough to confirm this."
Etiti looks around.They have withstood the breach...actually,LMDC's errant shot had destroyed the receiver,"Well,I guess Loyal finally found his spy.Damn her."
He sighs,"Tipid,mission accomplished?"

Retribution

You fire at your father and he goes up in flames.You feel strong arms across your chest.You feel and hear your own ribs crack.Your heat is strickly internal.You are losing consciousness,but you are glad.You got your retribution.

Supercilious

You do not hide your supercilious feelings as you see Etiti.Actual flames erupt in your eyes.With both arms you fire at him:and miss.Both vapourize demons on either side of him.
You curse your luck and get ready to aim again when Loyal shouts to you,"You are supposed to be protecting the Queen.Why are you not at your post?"
"The Queen is dead," you sneer,"And so are you."

Soup

{ I know you-but until this moment,I did not know that you were VI* }You place your hand on the screen.'The Door' opens.You walk through the soup,not caring if there are any reptiles in it.You enter The Akron.My back is towards you.You walk right by.







*pronounced:Vee-Eye

Insanity

You are in no hurry to walk through 'The Door' over to the insanity on The Akron,but Etiti is over there(probably fighting toe to toe with Loyal-you don't want to see him either...but for different reasons).You know you will probably die there,but you will live long enough to see it on their faces.They will know that it was you that brought down the mighty AM.

Exhilarating

...Meanwhile,high above the Earth-3,000 years into the future....You lookout through the window of the flagship,'FEM-Greystroke'.It is an exhilarating sight.Satan ships are everywhere.AM's fleet is destroyed.The mothership,'The Macon III ' lay still,and'The Akron' is about to be boarded.

You look inward.Queen Sheba lay dead,some sort of metal rod going through her Cheater helmet.And AM,the mighty AM,is about to loose even more.You will see to that.

Malleable

On most things a 'C' man's mind was malleable and easily sculpted to a journeyman's will.Quitting time was one of the more bendable times."

"We're done,"I said.I got no argument from Nik.

Corkscrew

I finished the stump and kicked the log off it's base.Here and there there were twigs and sticks stuck into the ground.But this wasn't a corkscrew willow-they wouldn't grow,and we didn't have to clean them up.This silver maple was history

Underwater

Underwater,the deeper you go,the more force-or pressure-you have pushing against you.In a sideways sort of way,it is the same cutting through a stump.As the blade cuts wood,there is more force exerted against the saw blade.In other words,the emptiness left behind by the cutting action is replaced by the now displaced weight of the stump.
A good way to counter act this is by using little bits and pieces of the bark,and placing them as supports where the blade has left no support.

Effulgent

The sharpened blade was kicking out a stream of sawdust that seemed to gleam like an effulgent spray of a thousand jewels in the bellowing sunlight.Not to many people recognized this joy.Fewer still,knew that they even saw it.

Odyssey

The odyssey from living tree to firewood was almost complete for this silver maple.I roared the engine,put the base of the saw against the stump and followed it's tip-sawdust a blazin'-around the tree.

Solitary

I carefully cleaned the area around the stump.I then searched for it's highest point of contact against the ground.The solitary reason for doing this was because that would be where I started cutting.If I started anywhere else,I was guaranteed to hit dirt.

Academic

I decided to let Nik take a break and I sharpened,gassed and oiled the saw.The question on whether I could remove this massive f-up of a nasty stump was purely academic .The real question was how low I could get it.

Care

With little fanfare or care,Nikolas cut through the rest of the trunk.All that was left was the stump.