Gerald was frustrated.  There was something wrong with the plan.  It wasn't going as he had expected it to.  He had adopted four griffins and they fluttered around his window, chirping loudly and gazing out at the golden sunsets.  He was having fun with the chimera, and his investments in the dismal fossil fuel industry were suddenly flourishing.  There had been four earthquakes across the planet that had toppled buildings and destroyed rival cities.  Clim-Port was in ruins, which Gerald found an unexpected but delightful side effect..  There were problems though.  There were new rules.  Unexpected rules.  He had almost been arrested four times for smoking marijuana cigarettes.  He wondered how a builder who had created new standards in building codes and earthquake proofing that had secured the safety of many a city that stood directly in the path of fault lines, a woman who had introduced stringent industry standards to genetic engineering, and the boy who had created the renewable source of clean burning fuel that crippled the fossil fuel industry could have changed  the universe against his favor.  To top it all off he had a sneaking suspicion that every day he came home his house seemed a little smaller and a little less glamorous.  They had stopped going to parties and people had stopped greeting him in the street as the son of a diplomat.  They barely glanced at him.

    It fully hit him when he came home day and couldn't find one of his computers.  At first it was a computer, then a time travel device.  Each and every day another of his possessions winked out of existence.  He cursed the plan.  He had been very careful not to choose anybody that had personally affected his own family history, but it was becoming apparent that something had gone very wrong.  He made back ups of all his data when it dawned on him and hid them in a time lock with his encyclopedia.  If what he feared was truly happening then he was going to need to fix the time line after all..


*****


    The occupants of cells 112 and 114 were drunk when the Royal Chromian camp was raided that night.  Ned, Jason, Jerry, and the girls had made good use of the two bottles of champagne that Ned had smuggled out of the Knott's Berry Farm Restaurant.  Phillip had declined and sat at the front of the cell leaning forlornly against the bars and gazing at David, who sat in the cell opposite in much the same posture, an identical frown of dismay on his face.  Bertram and John stood on the opposite side of the cell playing games on the computer.

    The soldier that came to rescue them was not attired in the same way the ones from earlier in the day had been.  He was wearing a suit of chain mail covered with a bright blue cotton tunic adorned with the crest that displayed the figures of a unicorn and a griffin in battle.  He burst triumphantly through the door and removed his helmet,  letting his long silky blond hair fall free as he shook it out.

    "I have come to rescue you," he announced in order to make sure that his intentions were clear.

    Jody and Catherine burst into drunken laughter at his display.  Another, younger, soldier followed...this one much smaller, with several of the dread locked creatures chirping around his feet.

    He smiled at the girls then reached in to his own tunic, it was much more classically military, like something they had all seen in the history books about world war two, wooly and pocketed.  He pulled out a small metal tool from one of those pockets and easily sprung the lock on the cell.  The girls sprung on him in return and showered him with hugs and kisses much to the horror and dismay of the larger, more showy soldier.  Bertram was quickly at the bars of his cell upon seeing Jody fawning over the soldier.

    "Hey, come on, stop it!"  He complained and futilely reached out to try and stop them.  He only managed to swipe a bit at the larger soldier.  Having already been annoyed that his squire was getting more attention than he was the man grabbed Bertram from the wrist and yanked him roughly into bars.

    "Don't do that," the soldier muttered in a strange accent.

    Bertram squealed with sudden pain and rubbed his shoulder once the soldier released him.

    "I don't think that was called for," he mumbled and retreated further into the cell where John and David were watching curiously and a bit afraid.

    "Quite enough, don't you think, Dor?"  The young one spoke to the blond, then brushed past him to open the other two cells.  Dor harrumphed indignantly, but gave way to his squire anyway.  He was, after all, quite fond of the boy.  He would make a good knight one day with a little more experience.

    "What now?" John complained as he trudged dejectedly from the cell and stood slumped in front of the knight.  Bertram followed and stood behind him, while David stood next to him, fighting the urge to run directly over to the other cell where Phillip was still enclosed.  They were released in short order.  Ned had to be supported between a slightly less drunk Jason and Jerry.  They pitched back and forth like a ship on a stormy sea.

    Dor watched them curiously as they fell into a crooked line two by two with partnerless Jerry tailing along at the end.

    "What are you doing?"  Dor asked.

    "Uh," John pondered the question for a moment.  "Take us to your leader?"

    Dor's stare hardened.  "How do we know you're not spies planted in this prison?"

    "We've traveled in time," Bertram piped up much to John's chagrin.  He turned to face his partner and made rather obvious motions for him to shut-up.  Bertram only ignored him in favor of addressing Dor.

    "Would the Royal Chromian army really use time travelers as spies?"

    Dor paused to consider this then slowly shook his head.

    "It would be clever."

    "Come on," Bertram said, his voice taking on an almost begging tone.

    "They are clever," Dor continued.  "But I think they probably hate you too much to use you.  Hate clouds their judgment most of the time."

    "Exactly!" Bertram nodded and then grinned triumphantly at John.

    "Well, okay," Dor said.  "It is day's journey from here on horny horse."

    "What did you say?"  Ned perked up, his interest suddenly aroused by the hilarity of the words that had just escaped the knight's mouth.

    "I said okay,"  Dor replied, a bit confused.

    "No, I mean the part about the horny horses," Ned sputtered.  He was unable to contain the uproarious laughter that had built up inside him, and Jason, Jerry, and the girls joined him shortly in his drunken revelry.

    "Guys," John turned impatiently towards the group.  "Are you twelve?  He means the unicorns."

   Ned pointed at him.  "You said unicorns!"  He squealed with delighted laughter.

    "Christ." John hung his head, fully embarrassed to be in charge of that particular group of twenty first century humans.

    Dor scratched at his flowing blond chin beard and turned to his squire.

    "Primitive race, yes, Dale?"

    Dale nodded as he stood at attention, wishing that he could let loose in such a way every once in a while.  There was no slacking off in the life of a squire though.  He was there to prove himself and make it into the new knighthood.

    "Okay, that's enough," John turned and commanded his group's attentions.  "Partner up.  Phillip, you're with us."

    Phillip, who had been uncharacteristically quiet since John had revealed his secret past, only shook his head.

    Jody scooted past John and grabbed hold of a rather surprised Bertram's arm.

    "Jody."  He gave her a gentle warning and tried to delicately push her away, but it caused her to not only hold on tight, but to lay her head against his shoulder.  He looked helplessly at John who was smiling encouragingly at him.  Bertram frowned.  It was against the rules.  He wondered how he had landed such a reckless partner.  He chuckled to himself after a moment.  John may have leaped more often than he looked, but here Bertram was, on a blue sun planet in a place that nobody had escaped from alive before.  It was scary, and he had no idea what lay in store for their little band of humans from the past.  For all he knew the kid and the muscle-bound knight could take them out into the woods and hang them, thereby cutting out the middleman of a public execution, but it didn't matter.  It was thrilling.  He hadn't felt so alive as he did in that moment.

    He pulled his arm out from Jody's grasp and wrapped it around her shoulder bringing her in closer.  She closed her eyes and sighed contentedly, and John gave him a thumbs up sign.

   John then marched to the rear of the line and took up with Jerry and they both took up the task of holding Ned in an upright position.  Jason smiled at Catherine, pointed at her then himself and mouthed  'You? Me?' at her with a smile.  She nodded happily and trotted up to him, greeting him with a kiss on the cheek.

    Phillip and David were left alone.  They stood shoulder to shoulder in silence.  David stared straight ahead as the others situated themselves in a line behind the Knight and the other soldier, who looked on approvingly.  Phillip chewed his lip and looked contemplatively up at his partner.  He let his arms drop from where they had been hugged tightly to his chest and let his hand dangle near David's.  David didn't immediately ward off his advances, so Phillip brushed a finger against the back of David's hand.  At that point David grunted, frowned, and took a step away, all the while keeping his eyes up front.  Phillip sighed dejectedly as they began to march forward and out of the prison.

    The knight led them to a nearby clearing where they were greeted with their own horny horses.

    The creatures that had been following behind them climbed up onto their own horse.  Ten of them piled on top of one another in a colorful mountain of dreadlocks.

    Catherine eyed her unicorn up and down.  It was smaller than the others and sported a patchwork of white and brown.

    "It's a pinto," she said to nobody in particular.

    Dale approached her as he was attending to the group, making sure they were all situated correctly on their mounts.  He patted her shoulder in a friendly manner.

    "Pinto?" he asked.

    "Well, where...when I come from that's what they would call this kind of horse with the patches.  I didn't know unicorns came in pinto colors."

    Dale chuckled kindly at her, and she smiled nervously in return.

    "It's just a  horse," he said.  "These horns are genetic grafts.  We wouldn't do it if the Royal Army didn't.  We had a lot of casualties when they first started engineering horny horses.  Human and Animal alike.  The horns are very sharp at the point and dangerous.  We had to protect ourselves.  Level the playing field."

    "So you're not with the other guys?" Catherine wondered.  "I thought you were like, rogue or something."

    "Nah." Dale shook his head.  "There were a few people that don't believe in the Prophet Williams principals.  The Royal family didn't like that, so we split off from the group...it sort of gained momentum and we've had more and more people join the rebellion as the years go by."

    "Wow," she marveled.  "So it's like civil war?"

    "Exactly," Dale agreed with a sigh.  "It's been going on for too long.  All we want really is to live in peace and be able to import the teleportation and time travel technologies that are available.  You know, to be a technologically advanced society and have those basic fundamental tools unavailable because a few people think it's wrong...  Perhaps the queen is afraid that once her subjects get a sight at the outside world then they won't want to live here anymore."

    "Yeah," Catherine nodded, then she laughed to herself.  "Basic technologies.  That's funny.  Where we come from this stuff is only fodder for fiction and theories."
    
    "I knew you were from the past!" He said excitedly as he eyed her clothes.  She nodded sheepishly.

    "Come on," Dale said.  "Let's get you up on that horse.  I'm supposed to be making sure everybody's okay, not standing around chatting."

    "But chatting is fun," Catherine replied.  "You're nice."

    "Thank you," Dale replied.  He told Catherine to stay put and returned to her with a saddle in hand.

    "Do you have to saddle all these horses by yourself?" She asked him.

    Dale nodded.  For that moment it was his lot in life to do Dor's bidding, while Dor sat on his on splendid black stallion that was covered in armor and its own tunic with the crest of the rebellion on it.  He watched over the proceedings with a satisfied grin on his face.  He surely would get a medal for such great do gooding. 
    
    "Well, I can help..."

    "Have you saddled a horse before?"  Dale asked.

    She shook her head to the negative.  She hadn't thought much about horses at all living in Southern California.

    "Well, it's tricky.  Sometimes they hold their breath so you can't tighten the girth.  Especially this old girl."  He patted the pinto fondly on the neck and she whinnied and shook her mane at him.

    Catherine laughed.  "Seriously?"

    "Yeah," Dale replied.  "This one doesn't particularly like to be bridled either.  She's a sweetheart, but a bit stubborn."

    From a few feet away Jason stood next to Ned and Jerry with a scowl on his face.

    "What are they talking about?"  He sniped.  "Cath is my partner now!"

     "You're jealous?"  Jerry wondered out loud.

    Jason fumed to himself and didn't bother answering because he knew that Jerry was right.  Catherine had only just started paying extra attention to him and he was beginning to enjoy her company.  She was a little quiet and a little shy and a little bit bookish...a little bit not his type, but she was sweet.  He could use a little sweet in his life, especially when no girls at all ever bothered to give him the time of day.

    "Maybe a little," he said.  "I mean...What is it that these future guys have that I don't have?"

    Jerry didn't say anything and that encouraged Jason to continue his ranting.

    "I mean...even Jody.  Look at her fawning all over that detective guy!"   He pointed to where she was still clinging to Bertram.  "And then David can't even stay away from the dude that put us on this weird ass planet...that is not Earth, Jerry.  We're not even on Earth!  To top it all off the guy is a whore.  Still...he's mister irresistible."

    "They don't seem to be getting along right now," Jerry pointed out.  Phillip and David stood off to the side, stiff in posture with their arms crossed, both staring straight ahead off into space awaiting further instruction.

    "Now, Cath..."  Jason turned his attentions back to complaining about his former partner.  "She's now got the hots for the...jesus, Jerry, am I that hideous?"

    "What do you mean?"  Jerry eyed him curiously.

    "She goes for the underling, Jerry!  She doesn't even go for the one that looks like Fabio!"  He swiped a hand gesture towards Dor, who sat upon his steed, tossing his golden locks in the air, the blue light glinting brilliantly off his shiny tresses.

    Jerry chortled at his companion's most accurate description of Dor, then patted him sympathetically on the back.

    "You're luck you're married.  You don't have to worry about this shit."  Jason muttered

    "Oh, please." Jerry shook his head.  His amusement quickly turned sour as he thought of the mother thing and her equally atrocious family back at Knott's Berry Farm.  Truth be told he was happy that he had been stolen from time.  If he ever got back he knew that things were over between he and Esther.  He had been through far too much to ever be satisfied with that kind of life again.  Here, on the blue sun planet with his fellow abductees, he was at least given a modicum of respect.  He would even go so far as to say that maybe the kids even liked him a little bit.

    "What?"  Jason asked.

    "If we ever find any future women," Jerry decided.  "I am so tappin' that future ass, I tell you what."

    Jason gaped at the older man's turn of phrase then burst into his own grin.

    "Right on my brother!"  He offered a high five and Jerry reciprocated. 

    "There's like, no women in the future," Jason pointed out.  "We've just met a bunch of weird chirpy hairballs with eyes and legs and these two jokers a bunch of...what that dude call them?"

    "Soldiers of the Royal Army?"  Jerry supplied, unsure that he had heard Dor correctly when he'd muttered the title to himself earlier.  "There was that one chick."

    "General Hard Ass?"  Jason asked with the nick name he had given to her in his mind.  This caused Jerry to laugh again.

    "Yeah, that one," he said.

    "I'm so not going there," Jason replied.  "Sentencing me to death row is kind of a turn off."

    "Yep," said Jerry.  There was no disagreeing with that.