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From: Lazlo Zalezac <lzalezac@yahoo.com>
Subject: {ASSM} The Portal: Doorway to Adventure 03 (MF, Sci-fi, Fantasy)
Lines: 693
Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2005 18:10:06 -0500
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Lazlo Zalezac
http://www.asstr-mirror.org/files/Authors/Lazlo_Zalezac
http://www.asstr-mirror.org/files/Authors/Lazlo_Zalezac


		
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Do you Yahoo!? 
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<1st attachment, "Intro 3.txt" begin>

DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fiction. If you are offended by 
sexually explicit material or are under the age of 18, stop reading 
now. This material cannot be reproduced for commercial purposes 
without the consent of the author.

The Portal: Doorway to Adventure
Chapter 3
By
Lazlo Zalezac
Copyright (C) Lazlo Zalezac, 2005

It was hard to ignore the women surrounding Sid in his English 
class; even the instructor had joked that he was now surrounded by 
a harem. Sid, his voice deep and rumbling, had answered that he 
was sure that it was purely accidental. The statement had provoked 
giggles across the entire room. The giggles convinced him to look 
around the room with a little more care. 

When the papers were handed back, Sid stared at the B+ in a state 
of shock. Just about every paragraph had editorial remarks about 
grammar and structure. He couldn't believe his eyes, but he read it 
very carefully. Rather than complain, he realized that it was his 
chance to improve. Others in the class were quite vocal in response 
to their grades, not bothering to read to read the comments. Sid 
was not surprised at the juvenile behavior.

The women in class held very little attraction for Sid. None of 
them held a candle to Sally in terms of appearance and manner. 
Most of them looked like they wore clothes that had shrunk in the 
washing machine. Their pants ended halfway between knee and 
ankle as though they were expecting a flood. Their blouses were 
short by a few inches that displayed bellies that bulged forth 
because their pants were too tight. Unlike Sally's diaphanous gown 
their clothes made them looked like clowns. Most of them walked 
like storks without the grace attached to the birds, clomping about 
on shoes that were outlandish in their size. Rather than settling 
gracefully into their chairs, they dropped into them like sacks of 
flour.

After experiencing Sally, Sid understood why his uncle had never 
married or acted all that interested in the women around him. Just a 
week ago, these women would have held his attention with great 
ease. He frowned as he realized that he stood a very good chance 
of being alone in this world. 

History class was a repeat of English. His grades were lower than 
he had expected and the women overly friendly. His dissatisfaction 
with life on Earth grew. The time passed tediously, yet he 
remained alert and listened to the instructors. He took detailed 
notes about all that was discussed in his classes; knowing that he 
would refer to them often. Two more papers were due at the end of 
the week, one for English and the other in his Business class. 

Finished with his classes, he headed to the student center to get a 
bite to eat. As he passed by the information booth, his English 
instructor called out to him. He turned, surprised to hear her call 
him. She rushed up to him and said, "There's a student position in 
the library that has just become available. The job will cover your 
tuition and give you some money. I thought you might be 
interested in it."

Sid was about to respond that he already had a job, but thought 
better of it. This would solve several of his problems. It would give 
him greater access to reference materials while saving him money 
since he wouldn't have to pay for his security guard uniform or 
tuition. Finally, he would save time since he wouldn't have to drive 
an extra hour to reach the job. He replied, "Sure, that sounds 
good."

Professor Smith asked, "How's your uncle?"

Sid looked down at the floor, saddened by the reminder, and licked 
his lips. He answered, "He passed away last week. His funeral was 
Saturday."

She looked at him in surprise and said, "You could have asked for 
an extension on your paper. I would have understood."

Smiling, he answered, "No. I enjoyed working on it. It helped keep 
my mind off my other problems."

"I understand. By the way, your paper was one of the best in the 
class." She looked at the young man unable to define what 
attracted her to him. With his rough features, he wasn't that good 
looking and his short military haircut wasn't all that stylish. He 
wasn't that tall, coming in at 5'8". He looked fit and moved with a 
cat-like grace. Perhaps it was his intensity that drew her towards 
him. She was tempted to ask him to join her for coffee, but didn't 
feel that would be a good idea. 

He replied, "I really appreciated all of the comments you made on 
it. I can see how to improve the quality of my papers 
tremendously. It's going to help improve my grades in all of my 
classes."

It was rare for an instructor to get such positive feedback so early 
in the semester. Usually, it took three or four poor grades before 
the student even looked at the comments and even more before 
they took them to heart. Taken aback by his comment, she replied, 
"Thank you."

"You're welcome," he replied as he adjusted his notebooks so that 
they didn't dig into his arm. Before the silence had a chance to 
become uncomfortable, Professor Smith left after saying a simple 
goodbye.

He went to the library and after a very short conversation there, 
had a new job shelving books. The new job would make the next 
two weeks rather busy since he would need to give a two week 
notice at his current job, but he could handle both jobs. He took his 
responsibilities very seriously and felt that all of the forms should 
be obeyed. It wasn't that he needed to work once the insurance 
money was paid, but for now it was necessary and he would 
continue working regardless of need.

Heading home to study, he realized that he had pursued the 
opportunity to get a new job without eating at the student center. 
His stomach reminded him of his hunger so he stopped at a fast 
food joint on the way home. As he sat there eating his meal, his 
mind kept returning to Sally. He wanted to join her in Crossroads, 
but she had insisted that he give her time to prepare for his first 
mission. For now, he was stuck here knowing that there was a 
gorgeous intelligent woman waiting for him in Crossroads.

Once he reached home, he decided to call into work and let his 
supervisor know that he was quitting. When he called his boss and 
tendered his resignation, he was shocked when he learned that 
tonight would be his last night. He had been informed that there 
were three people waiting for work and that replacing him would 
not be difficult. 

He sat at the desk, staring at the closet with longing. It was time for 
him to study, yet all he could think about was Sally. He chased the 
thoughts of her from his mind and began to study. The first thing 
he did was to carefully read all of the comments made by his 
English Professor. He had not recognized the errors made in 
grammar or the structure of his argument. He wrote up a check list 
of the errors that would be easy to spot, but the problems dealing 
with structure were much more difficult to categorize. 

He went to work on the paper for his business class. He would 
write a section and then check it against his checklist. Every error 
that he found, he corrected using the examples from his English 
paper. By the time it was finished, it read very well. He printed up 
a copy so that he could read it over again at work. He looked at the 
clock in shock. It had taken him much longer to write the paper 
than he had expected. 

He began to work through his Algebra homework. It didn't take 
long before he realized that he couldn't solve a single one of the 
problems. He consulted his notes, observing that similar problems 
had been solved in class. However, he couldn't differentiate 
between problems that should be solved one way versus the other. 

He turned to the first page of his math textbook and started 
reading. For the first time in his life, he actually read a math book. 
To his surprise and delight, he found that he could understand the 
material. He worked through the assigned problems and then 
worked through the rest of the problems of at the end of the 
chapter. This was a revelation, just as great as any that he had. 

The days passed slowly, filled with classes, work, and homework. 
Sid paid attention and worked hard on his classes, but his desire 
was to be else where. Finally, the day came when he could step 
through the portal. It was with a great sense of impatience that he 
stepped into the closet.

Expecting a sterile white room, he was surprised to find himself in 
a richly colored room. There were blue carpets on the floor, floral 
wall paper, and  a crystal chandelier. The door at the other end of 
the room was now easily visible as a wood door. It opened as he 
approached. 

The waiting room had been totally transformed. Persian carpets 
decorated the floor, the coffee table was now made of a rich wood, 
and the chairs were covered with leather. The walls were off-white 
with lamps spaced along the length. It was a very rich looking 
room, with a strong masculine feel to it. Seated on the chair, Sally 
watched him examine the room with pleasure. She asked, "Do you 
like?"

Sid looked at her and answered, "I like it a lot. What a surprise."

The epitome of grace, she rose from the chair and approached him. 
Her movements were smooth, hips undulating with sexuality, and 
the look on her face seductive. Her gown, a pale transparent blue, 
barely exposed the treasure that was her body. Holding his breath, 
he watched transfixed, unable to take his eyes off her. Embracing 
him, she held him tightly. Whispering in his ear, she said, "I 
missed you."

He wrapped his arms around her, crushing her against his chest. 
The end of many days of separation came as a relief. He whispered 
back, "I missed you."

It took less than a minute for them to reach the bedroom. Sid 
undressed himself as she released the gown she was wearing. 
When she lay on the bed, he moved beside her and started kissing 
her lips. She responded with an eagerness unknown to her prior to 
that day. He kissed her neck and then moved to her breasts. Taking 
his time, he teased them until they were iron hard points. Her 
breathing was deep as his left hand snaked between her legs. It was 
unbelievable to her that a man could do this to a woman.

When his lips reached her cunt, she screamed in astonishment. The 
feeling of his kisses drove her to sexual heights that were 
previously unknown. His tongue tracing the nether lips produced 
one orgasm after another. When he touched her clitoris, she locked 
her legs around his head. Her entire body thrashed on the bed as an 
orgasm ripped through her body. The idea that a man should act so 
aggressive in bed astonished and excited her. In truth, even a lousy 
lover from Earth could have achieved the same results.

Sid entered her gently and thrust slowly. As his excitement built, 
his thrusts became increasingly more demanding. Sally was 
defenseless to his passion. She surrendered her body and then her 
soul. This was beyond anything that she had ever fantasized. She 
started screaming, "I am yours, I am yours."

The moment of orgasm came to Sid without warning. One second 
he was thrusting and the next he was pushing himself as deep as 
possible while his come shot out the end of his cock. His orgasm 
was accompanied with a growl of a wild animal. He collapsed 
almost as quickly as he came. With effort he rolled off Sally, 
cursing himself for not being good in bed this time. His excitement 
and desire had overcome his control and he had lasted only two 
minutes.

Sally lay upon the bed shaking as her body refused to return to 
normal. Sid looked at her in concern, afraid that he had hurt her. 
This had been almost more than she could take and it took almost a 
full ten minutes for her to recover enough to respond to Sid's 
gentle questioning. She looked at Sid and said, "That was amazing. 
I didn't believe it could be better than last time."

The words were meant to comfort, but Sid understood that his 
desire had been too strong for a great performance. Thinking she 
was lying to spare his feelings, he said, "Next time, I'll last longer. 
It was just that I missed you so much."

Sally sat up and asked, "What do you mean? That was 
outstanding."

Frowning, Sid confessed, "I didn't last long at all."

Laughing as though he were telling her a joke, she said, "You can't 
be serious. Are you teasing me or something?"

"I'm very serious," replied Sid. He added, "I wouldn't tease you 
about something this serious."

Eyes wide with wonder, she said, "You can do better than that?"

"Much better, I think." Sid looked at her and realized that she was 
telling the truth. He asked, "What is sex like on Cassandra?"

"The men are very passive. Occasionally, one will participate with 
a little more enthusiasm than others." She looked sad as she 
thought about the men and their lack of interest in sex. To 
compensate, the woman had become very orgasmic. She added, 
"The women are much more active. I always preferred women 
there. Usually, we just grind our private parts together. I always 
came that way."

Sid said, "It doesn't sound like the men are much of anything in 
bed."

"I guess that is true. They've never been the same since the Great 
War a thousand years ago," replied Sally. 

Curiosity drove Sid to ask, "Why is that?"

The Great War had destroyed the people and culture of Cassandra. 
An exchange of artificial viruses had turned men into weaklings 
with very low sex drives. Worse, their bodies produced a protein 
that destroyed sperm with X chromosomes. The women had 
proteins that destroyed sperm with Y chromosomes. Many of the 
man and women were sterile since they were affected with both 
proteins. A very few men and women were able to breed with each 
other, but the children resulting from such coupling tended to be 
sterile. Very few children were actually fertile.

The race was quickly dying out until they had discovered the portal 
to Crossroads. Investigations had led them to discover that the 
sperm of men from Earth were resistant to the enzymes of the 
women. When they tried to import men from Earth, the equipment 
of Crossroads would not allow it. Further investigation revealed 
that there were rules that had to be followed for the equipment to 
function. The man must save the woman from dire circumstances 
and the rescue must take place on a planet named Chaos. Without 
the rescue, the woman from Cassandra would never get to couple 
with the man from Earth. The children produced by such a union 
were often fertile and able to produce children of their own. It 
wouldn't be long before the population of Cassandra reached a half 
million once again. 

Sally looked at him for a minute as she debated about telling him 
the truth. It was forbidden to tell him the whole story, only enough 
to keep him satisfied and coming back. She said, "I can't tell you."

Sid asked, "Are they going through the whole damsel thing so that 
they can experience an Earth man in bed?"

The question was close enough to the truth that Sally had no 
problem answering. She said, "Yes. The damsel will expect the 
hero to have sex with her."

"Won't you be jealous?"

Sally looked at him in puzzlement, not quite understanding the 
word jealous. She asked, "What is jealous?"

Sid was smart enough not to pursue that question. Instead, he said, 
"Never mind. When do I go?"

Sally answered, "First, I have to train you in the culture of Chaos 
so that you can function there. Then, we have to pick a mission. 
Finally, we have to decide how to go after that mission."

The next week was spent learning the culture of Chaos. It was a 
very in-depth study covering the economy, social structure, 
relationships among people, and the infrastructure. The time spent 
studying was interrupted for meals, sleep, and sex. The sex only 
got better, a fact that totally amazed Sally. 

The next week was spent examining three missions of which he 
was to pick one. Sally laid out each mission in considerable detail. 
One element that Sid felt was the most important was how much 
trouble the maiden was facing. If she was in serious trouble, he 
wanted to know about that mission first. Sally argued that a 
mission should be undertaken based on the ease with which it 
would be completed. 

The first mission she presented to him concerned rescuing a 
woman that had been taken by a small gang of three men in an 
isolated area. This maiden was in serious trouble because the three 
men had forged papers of indenture. They were taking her to a city 
to sell her and would arrive at the city in three days. If they 
managed to sell her, then she would become an indentured servant 
regardless of the validity of the original papers. Since she was an 
attractive woman, it would mean at least five years in a good 
brothel. As prostitution took its toll on her body, she would move 
to lower and lower class establishments over time. She'd be an old 
hag in less than ten years.

The second mission she presented to him concerned rescuing a 
maiden that was being held by one man in the middle of the city. It 
was his hope that she would fall in love with him and eventually 
marry him. Her situation wasn't desperate in the sense that he 
meant no immediate harm to her. The mission wasn't all that 
difficult, basically a snatch and flee. The man holding her wasn't 
an expert in weapons, so Sid could easily overcome him. 

The third mission  she presented to him concerned rescuing a 
maiden who was being held for ransom. She was safe until the 
gang holding her decided that they weren't going to get any money. 
This was a rather large gang that was well armed and knew their 
business. Since he hadn't yet acquired any money in Chaos, that 
meant he would have to make his own weapons or go against them 
unarmed. 

The choice was clear to Sid, only the first mission fit all of his 
parameters. Sally argued for the second mission since it would be 
the simplest and could net the greatest gain financially. Both 
agreed that the third mission was beyond his resources for the time 
being. 

Dressed in the leather pants, vest, and boots that were common on 
Chaos, Sid stepped to the portal and paused to look back at Sally. 
It was hard for him to believe that this beautiful woman had 
entered his life. One more step and he would be on another world 
with its own laws and customs. Fixing her image in his mind, he 
stepped through the portal to Chaos.

He found himself in a small wood paneled room about the size of 
two old fashioned phone booths placed side by side. Turning, he 
unlatched the door and stepped into a hallway that led to a bank 
lobby. Everything was just as he had expected. The portals were 
connected to rooms in a worldwide chain of banks. No one noticed 
that one more person left the bank than had entered.

Leaving the bank, Sid found that he was on the main street of the 
town and took a moment to examine his surroundings. This was 
the town of Pottsville, a town with a population of about four 
thousand people, which made it a fairly respectable sized town for 
Chaos. Across the street from the bank was the headquarters of the 
Potters Guild. Horse-pulled wagons with their loads of charcoal or 
clay were driven down the dirt road to where the pottery factories 
were located. 

Up the street, there was an inn with a sign that showed a bed, mug 
of ale, and a roast under a large pot. From what Sally had told him, 
it meant that they had rooms, tavern, and restaurant under one roof. 
The large pot represented the name of the inn. Considering the fact 
that he didn't have any money, it would be ages before he could 
stay in such an expensive place.

It took him a few minutes to get oriented and then he headed south 
out of town towards the river. The woman that he was to rescue 
was being brought north towards the town and was about three 
days away. The plan was for him to walk a half a day south and to 
work at an apple orchard picking apples for the remainder of the 
day. He would work the next day at the orchard and then tackle the 
three slavers in the middle of the third day. 

Taking his time, he walked down the road checking out the sights. 
The women were dressed in conservative dresses, but not so 
conservative that they weren't showing a little skin. Most of the 
men were dressed in the same manner as he, but they were armed 
while he wasn't. A couple of men looked at him as a likely target 
for a mugging. He smiled at them as if to invite them to try. The 
invitation was regarded as a hint that targeting him might not be 
such a good idea.

Sid was not upset that he was not attacked, but it would have been 
a good way to get a weapon. There were rules to this game and he 
had to play by the rules. Sally had emphasized that a winner of a 
fight had the right to the spoils of battle. If someone attacked him 
and he knocked them unconscious, then he could take everything 
and anything that he wanted. If he were to attack someone for any 
criminal reason, then he would violate the heroic code and would 
not be able to return to Chaos. He didn't see any problems with the 
rules of the game; they were fair as far as he was concerned. 

Leaving the town behind, he came across the quarry where two 
dozen dirty men were hard at work. Several men were loading 
wagons with pale gray clay in large earthenware pots. As a product 
of twentieth century Earth, he had never seen anything like the 
mining process in which they extracted clay from the ground and 
prepared it for use by potters. He watched as men dug out the clay 
with short handled hoes and placed it into a basket. The clay was 
then dumped onto a drying area to dry. Once the clay had dried, a 
number of men broke the chunks of dry clay into a fine powder 
and sifted it to extract any rocks. The dry clay was then carried 
over to an area where it was placed in earthenware pots and mixed 
with water. He noticed that these earthenware pots were delivered 
to the wagons to be transported into town. He wondered if he had 
observed the entire process or if potters applied their own 
treatment to the product.

He followed the road to a wooden bridge that spanned a muddy 
river. Stopping on the bridge, he looked down at the sluggish river 
that flowed below him. A couple of men were fishing using hand 
woven nets. Each man stood in the river, the water coming to his 
knees, and tossed a large net out into the deeper water. Retrieving 
the net, the man would untangle any fish in it and add them to a 
woven basket on the shore. Most of the fish were small, but 
occasionally there would be a larger one. From the distance, he 
couldn't tell what kind of fish they were.

Glancing up at the sky, he realized that he had been moving rather 
slow and that he needed to pick up the pace if he were to get to the 
orchard in time to earn dinner. He walked past small farms 
growing different kinds of crops. Undoubtedly, they would sell the 
crops in town. Their proximity to the town made it possible for 
them to deliver their goods fresh and early in the morning. 

As he moved, he observed how the land had been cleared of trees 
for making charcoal with the subsequent use of the land for 
farming just an added benefit. He stopped and studied a small 
farm, watching the farmer take care of his crops using manual 
tools. The farmer and his children were out in the field working the 
ground with hoes, removing weeds around the bean plants. 

Once again, he realized that he was moving too slow to make it to 
the orchard in time. It was time for him to increase his rate of 
travel. He stopped and stretched to loosen up his muscles, 
undoubtedly providing the locals with an unusual sight. He broke 
into a distance-consuming jog in order to make better time. His 
pace was such that he could keep it up for a long time before 
getting tired. 

An hour passed as he jogged down the dirt road. The air was cool 
and the sun was warm so that it felt good to be moving. He slowed 
down to a fast walk and then to an even walk once he was 
approaching his destination. Sid recognized the place by the large 
number of people working around the trees picking apples. 
According to his briefing, they would work here for the next two 
days and then move on to the next farm. In two weeks, there 
wouldn't be a single tree within miles of there with an apple 
remaining upon it. 

Sid stood by the side of the road watching the activity around the 
orchard. It didn't take him long to identify the person in charge. He 
watched the owner of the farm work for several minutes getting a 
measure of the man before approaching him. On arrival, he waited 
for the man to finish giving instructions to one of the overseers. In 
a polite voice, he said, "Sir, I need work for a day."

The man turned to examine Sid, taking in his clothes and posture. 
He frowned at the lack of weapon. Even migrant workers carried 
clubs or knives. The fact that the man was wearing clothes of 
reasonable quality was in sharp contrast to his unarmed state. 
There was only a single explanation that made sense to the owner, 
Sid was a professional fighter who had recently been defeated in a 
duel. The owner believed it wouldn't be good to irritate the man 
standing before him. He asked, "What were you expecting to do 
here?"

"Pick apples, sir," answered Sid pointing towards the people 
working in the orchard.

The answer was not what the owner had been expecting. Surprised, 
he said, "Okay. Get a basket and get to work. I pay one pinch per 
basket."

Sid took a minute to figure out how much a pinch per basket was 
worth. A pinch was the lowest unit of currency. Four pinches made 
a single quad. A low-end room at an inn cost two quad. Four quads 
made a shell, which was a normal day's wage. He'd have to pick 
sixteen baskets to make a normal day's pay. He wasn't sure if that 
was a good wage, but he nodded his acceptance.

Sid went over to the stack of baskets and grabbed one. The 
paymaster was watching over the baskets and asked, "Are you just 
starting?"

"Yes, sir," answered Sid in a respectful tone of voice. 

"Grab a ladder from over there," said the paymaster with a grunt. 
He examined Sid for a second trying to figure out why he was 
picking apples. Giving up, he added, "You can't pick apples if you 
don't use a ladder."

"Makes sense to me," commented Sid with a grin. He imagined 
that a person who only picked the apples that were within reach 
wouldn't be very popular with the other pickers.

Before heading over to a tree, Sid paused to watch how others 
were working. He'd never picked apples before. Apples appeared 
magically at the grocery store in his world. It was actually pretty 
simple. One set up a ladder and then picked apples placing them in 
the basket. When there weren't any apples within reach, you 
climbed down and moved the ladder. Satisfied that he could do the 
work, he went to a tree, set up his ladder, and started picking 
apples. 

What looked simple was more work than he thought possible. The 
basket was larger than a bushel basket and when filled was very 
heavy. The ladder wasn't very stable and he had to work to hold 
the basket, pick apples, and keep his balance. The apples did their 
best to keep from being picked. His first basket took almost an 
hour to fill.  He realized that he would be doing good to earn a 
quad and a half by the end of the day. 

He carried the basket up to the paymaster. The man looked at the 
basket for a second and said, "Fill the basket level. Don't pile them 
on, they'll fall off."

Sid looked at the other baskets and realized that he had put more 
apples in his than others had put in theirs. The paymaster moved 
the overage into another basket before handing him a single pinch 
and the partially filled basket. Sid walked away while studying the 
pinch. It was a small glass disk with a few barely perceptible flakes 
of gold embedded within it. It didn't look like much, but he put it 
into his leather coin purse. 

Returning to the tree where he had left the ladder, Sid went back to 
work. Sid persevered and soon found that there was a knack to 
removing the apple from the branch. His second basket took a little 
more than half an hour to fill. He dropped it off at the paymaster 
and collected another pinch and an empty basket.

It was during his third basket that he found a way to remove the 
apple very quickly by giving it a short jerk and a twist. That basket 
took about twenty minutes to fill. He carried it over to the 
paymaster and set it down. The paymaster frowned and poured the 
apples out onto the table. With a look of surprise on his face, he 
put the apples back into the basket as he said, "You're fast."

Sid didn't comment as he accepted his third pinch and an empty 
basket. He returned to work taking note of what worked well and 
what didn't. Soon he was strategically placing the ladder to cover 
the most densely packed areas of the tree. He had finally picked 
the tree clean and set down his basket to move the ladder over to 
the other tree. 

When he returned to his basket, another man was getting ready to 
walk off with it. Finding it incredible that someone would try to 
steal his apples, Sid asked, "What are you doing with my basket?"

The man looked like he lived at the very bottom of the economic 
ladder. His clothes were worn with holes that hadn't been patched. 
His face was unshaven. When he opened his mouth to speak, Sid 
could see that he had lost a number of teeth. After pulling out a 
knife, the man said, "It's mine."

"I don't think so," replied Sid as he positioned his body to respond 
in case he was attacked. According to the rules he had to follow to 
remain a hero, he was justified in taking direct action against the 
thief. He examined the knife and saw that it could barely be 
considered a knife. It was nothing more than a thin sliver of metal 
stuck between two pieces of wood that were tied together to serve 
as a handle.

"You're unarmed," said the man as if Sid might not be aware of 
that fact. 

"I see you can't count. I guess that proves that you're as stupid as 
you look," commented Sid with a smile. He hoped to provoke the 
man into attacking.

"I can count."

"You said that I was unarmed."

"You are," countered the man. He felt that Sid was making fun of 
him somehow, but he couldn't figure out how.

Raising one arm and then the other, Sid said, "One. Two. I count 
two arms. I'm amazed that you can't even count to two. It seems 
that counting to one is even beyond you."

A crowd had gathered and Sid's comment caused a number of the 
people watching to laugh. Angry at being made the butt of a joke, 
the man jabbed his knife towards Sid's stomach. Expecting the 
move, Sid caught the hand and twisted the arm. Lifting his left 
knee, he used it to bend the arm in a direction in which it was 
never meant to bend. The result was a loud snap as joint gave way. 
Releasing the hand, Sid gave a short hard punch to the side of the 
man's head. The man went down, unconscious before he even hit 
the ground. Sid took a quick look at the man and knew he wouldn't 
be getting up soon. The crowd gave forth with noises that 
suggested they were surprised and pleased by the results, but might 
have enjoyed it more if the fight had lasted a little longer. 

Ignoring the crowd, Sid picked up his basket and returned to the 
tree where he had carried the ladder. He set the basket down and 
positioned the ladder where he wanted it. As he was bending down 
to pick up the basket, the paymaster said, "This is yours."

Sid turned to see the man holding out the knife and a worn coin 
purse. Surprised, he said, "Pardon?"

"You won them in a fair fight and in front of witnesses. These are 
yours," said the paymaster surprised that Sid hadn't claimed them 
as soon as the fight had finished.

"What are they?"

"Clem's weapon and money."

"Thanks," replied Sid as he recalled the rule that covered spoils of 
battle in this world. He took the knife and the coin purse. After 
tying the coin purse to his belt, he slipped the knife into his belt. 
Satisfied that he wouldn't cut himself on the knife, he bent to pick 
up his basket. 

The paymaster stared at Sid for a minute and then asked, "Aren't 
you going to quit?"

"Why would I quit?" answered Sid surprised by the suggestion. 

"You got a weapon and some money," replied the paymaster.

"Oh," replied Sid looking over at the paymaster. The comment 
about having a weapon reminded him that the knife wouldn't serve 
his purposes. He looked around and noticed a branch of an apple 
tree that had been broken by one of the other pickers. Pointing at it, 
he asked, "Could I get permission from the owner to remove that 
broken branch from the tree? I'd like to make something out of it."

The paymaster looked over at the branch for a minute. He had a 
good idea what Sid would do with the branch. It had a nice straight 
section that would make a nice short staff. He said, "In two days, 
you'll get paid a pinch to trim that tree."

Shaking his head, Sid said, "I need it tonight."
<1st attachment end>


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