The bull and the mouse.
It was a nice gentle spring day in the pasture, the older, scarred up bull leisurely ate the springs sweet grass. He was not welcome to the ladies party going on in the center of the pasture, as he had already did his duty and impregnated them all. Now to them he was an eye sore. But the bull had made a friend. A little field mouse who made it her point to warn the bull of the dangers she had seen. Although, the dangers to the mouse was not even a concern for the bull.
The bull fought off wolves and rivals alike and stood proud. Today by the fence, where the little mouse made her home in a hole in the nearly rotten wood post, the mouse was enjoying the warm sunshine. Males would not come near the pasture, despite the cows not really liking them, there were other threats that the cows and the bull overlooked. She had found a forgotten walnut, and after some work, finally was enjoying her breakfast of the nut's insides. However, during her efforts the biggest threat to the field mice had slithered up a fence post, and slowly crept its way to the oblivious mouse. The bull questioned himself if he should intervene, as nature will do as she pleased. But the mouse was friendly to him, and she did brighten his dull days a bit.
He knew he could easily break the flimsy looking thing in his way. The young males he sired would talk at length about what was out there. He would laugh at them.
"There is only danger out there, and nothing more but trees than what is in here."
The young males chortled at him.
"Foolish old man, what do you know of life outside of this pen?"
He did not explain, but showed them the old scars of previous wolf attacks.
"You leave the pen, you surely will die. And if you don't, you will surely wish you did."
The males left the old man alone, as staying any longer near him would give him the right to attack them, and at their age, even with numbers, he would win. They watched many challengers try to take his domain from him, and they watched many bulls have to be brought to the infirmary pens to heal.
This thought distracted him to the point that the snake was now within striking distance of the mouse who was humming as she scrapped out the remains of the nut. The bull wasted not a single second. The snakes bite did little to the older bull who felt its pains many times. Now it just gave him terrible gas.
The ladies watched at the old man backed up. This was becoming a new topic of discussion. He lowered his head, stomped his hooves, and charged. The cows thought he lost his everloving mind. He broke the middle fence board, causing the mouse to land on his neck, and the snake to get gored by his sharp horn. There was now an opening, which the ladies decided to get brave and see whats to eat out there. However, the bull returned to the pen and laid his big ass down, blocking the hole, and getting an earful from the mouse. That is, until she noticed the piece of snake hanging from his horn. She too decided it was time for a nap, as the farmer came to repair the fence.
The moral of the story was that sometimes no one knows what the right thing to do is, until after it is done.
Tobias laughed. Sgt. Tobias Noket was in the food line, as a giant boar roasted on the fire, the orc cooks were laughing at the human's hunt. This boar was notoriously hard to kill, even for veteran hunters, and the strange humans, with no magic, ended its charge easily. The cooks loaded his tray with dinner, and two large bread rolls. Tobias, under orders from his superiors assisted the Royal village of Hersute in a subjugation quest of rampaging giant boars threatening the farming villages that now occupy what used to be Yonkers.
The "Incident" or "Overlay Apocalypse" had seen a multitude of realities dog pile modern day Earth. Now, three years after the event, the world decided to cease hostilities, and prepare for another event. So the 7 billion humans, that just had 34 billion different races and versions of humans and other creatures drop in their lap had to improvise. Phones, Internet, Power, Etc. still functioned, as long as the connections were not removed by new land masses and features appearing suddenly. The geological satellites now show that the Earth had gained more than almost half of its original mass in the first days after the event. It was still growing, as the flood shrank to a river, and now it was a stream. Soon, the wizards and scientists figured that the plane would stabilize and hopefully once everything calms down, a spreading out of sorts would happen. The satellites could show new land masses from space, but they are still largely unexplored.
There were three Kingdoms that arose after the event, The Democratic Peoples of Ame Rica, named after America, whom the outsiders think is a goddess. The Empire of Bones, a misnamed place, as regular humans could not say the name properly, it is home to primarily the brunt of the demihumans and other races. Not a dangerous place, since their focus is more of land management and agriculture. And the Kingdom of the Pure. The asshole human are superior factions that fell to earth. They are not openly hostile, but they will deny entry to anyone or thing the deem unworthy. America regulated the trade between the three, since we had the kind of weapons that made magic and steel pointless. It was not a might makes right situation as vast populations of people were suddenly displaced into a land that could not bear them well. So magic had to blend with science, and it was a "work together or die" situation, that even the least intelligent goblin could understand.
Tobias had chuckled and thanked the Orcs for the food, which he learned their custom of slugging the left shoulder of someone who did you a favor, to show that you had their back in case they needed something. He punched both of them in their green exposed shoulers and they laughed and corrected him.
"Human, you punch shoulder for marriage, and Arm for thanks."
Well now he asked two Orcs to marry him. But they laughed it off as the worked to cut more meat to feed the dinner line.
"Sgt. Tobias, permission to wake up from this perpetual nerdy wet dream?"
"Denied, find you a fairy to take that shrimp dick of yours"
"We have something in common, we both like women."
"You couldn't handle me on your best day."
His squad's banter was notorious, so they were asked to take their meals by their vehicles. No one was mad at them, but their topics of conversation were a little more than crude for the almost puritan locals.
His team was assigned to help complete the roadway, using modern materials to help the moving of resources to the Royal Capital. It was now just a hub for America's kingdom. But to keep the peace, both empires secretly agreed to let the Royals be the face of America to their people. Nothing changed, the royals took in the peoples problems and brought it to Washington, where it would be addressed and voted on.
The taring machine had stopped nearby, as the dirt was stomped down for the laying of asphalt. Now the villagers had street lights between the villages, and even phones. Indoor plumbing was a three month course of watching everyone lose their minds that they can both shit, piss, AND bathe in their houses. Want a glass of water? No more stagnate water from a barrel. Computers and such were okay to these people, but the fact that they don't have to dig cesspools. Medicine and medical knowledge was second, and people stopped dying to things that they shouldn't die to.
Now the food was the key issue, as some races could not eat modern food safely. The kids loved the wrapped snacks and candy, but not much else.
"Sgt. HQ is on the radio for you. Sounds Urgent."
"Aww, fuck."
Tobias had stuffed the last of his pork sandwich into his mouth as he got up to answer the call. It was never good to get a call from HQ at dinner. Usually meant trouble.
"FUCK IT!"
Fortunately the locals did not know the curse words that Tobias screamed into the air behind the vehicles that night.
In the morning, Tobias had to break the news to his squad. They were being replaced, as the higher ups had a new and urgent mission for them. Several miles up the path was a portal in the air that is expected to close, but it is releasing flying monsters that only a small group of things know about. Apparently they are harmless, until they get a whiff of magic, then they become vicious. Normally shit like this sorts itself out, and the weird gets moved on. But the biggest problem, is that the delegate from the Pure empire is heading to Washington, as they are attempting to join the two nations together by marriage. A typical power play in fantasy, where if you cant win against them with force, you just destroy them from the inside through marriage. Change enough minds and hearts and a whole country could fall. The royals warned us about them long before first contact in Maryland, where they are settling. They are a humans first, and only Theocracy, their Pope is always a young woman, who at the end of her term is willingly sacrificed to their human god to grant them a miracle. It was a strange religion that did not sit well with the faiths of the modern world.
BUT the biggest problem right now was that the horde of flying monsters will intercept the convoy in the afternoon. They had to hustle to make it on time. It was not like they wanted to rescue a bunch of hate mongers, but if they did not, it would give them the ammo to openly declare war. And that was not an outcome anyone wanted. So he refueled the APC's and checked their weapons twice and set out with his squad, as a URV flew past them, to monitor the swarm. There was a thunderstorm building up in the distance as the sky was slowly growing darker. Soon hail hit the vehicle as visibility grew worse. The driver turned on his ultra brights and advanced slowly. They were pretty close, as the last images from the URV were downloaded into the vehicle's computer. It was only a mile and a half up the road. The horde was closer now, slowed by the storm, as they grounded themselves, covering their heads and bodies with their wings. However, as they approached the caravan of wagons, something looked off. It looked like something big and strong trashed the entire group. Broken bodies covered the area as It looked like there were no survivors. The team was about to radio it in, when a wagon finished falling over. A crate fell out and landed on the road. The lid busted open and out spilled a woman of eighteen, in a very nice dress. They bundled her up, to take to the APC when an arc of lightning scorched the ground in front of Tobias who had the woman in his arms.
Not this shit. Fucking magic. Tobias only new enough to stop projectiles which was the basic of the basic magic. But while they might not be uber class mages, they were very talented fighters. After a short bout of gunfire the hooded figures were dead or dying on the ground. Tobias had returned after securing the girl. An unseen hand like thing finished the hand movements for a spell, and got several more rounds in its back for its efforts. Nothing changed , except the hail started to glow blue as it fell. And the bodies of their attackers all burst into flames. Since whatever happened did not effect them, They had to get to higher ground to report this. But as they locked down the rear hatch, the horde grew into a violent frenzy as they ate up the glowing blue hail, and promptly exploded. The force of the explosions rocked the APC, when there were no more coming from the portal, and were officially dead, a loud, soul piercing and deafening roar shook everything in existence to its core within the area.
Something Dark and Mad was there, above the storm clouds, and now it was hungry......