At the sound of crackling energy blasts Cole Turner threw himself on the scorched ground. It was still steaming from the last time it had been blown apart and he could feel the blue coloured soil burning through his shirt, and even Leo's best ski parka that he had hastily appropriated from the hallstand on his way out of the manor as he remembered the bitter cold of Burvjara. Leo, or more likely Piper who bought Leo's clothes, was going to be pissed at  the damage done to it.

The firepower became louder as Cole crawled across the smouldering blue soil. Great beams of static destructive yellow light screamed just across his back. They  hit the ground in front of him, sending the already scorched earth up into the air in a sparkling green cloud that stank like rotten egg gas. This caused some of the gas still in the air to turn into the peculiar orange flame unique to the realm and rain down on Cole further adding to the damage done to Leo's parka.

As another shaft of light power ripped the parka he wore as well as a fair piece of flesh off his back, Cole again fought down the impulse to shimmer. hundreds of cycles of war using weapons created in hell he knew that a shimmer could explode the air for hundreds of strides in this realm.

In another time and place, Cole would have found the colours and light spectacular. At this point he cursed them viciously and loudly. He cursed magic and his fate and his calling, then he kept on crawling, muttering out loud, to help him resist the temptation to shimmer "Don't do it, don't do."

He was frightened, not for his own safety because he was beyond what this land of death could inflict. However  the constant noise of battle, resurfaced all the fears his mortal soul from his demon days. It reminded him of a time when his whole life had been fear. Not that he was alone in his fear. In this realm all who lived or survived or breathed because living in terms of having a life was not a concept in this realm, existed on fear. They feared of death, their own and those around them, they feared of any illness or magic, feared being. And the fear was contagious  for  both sides,  all sides, even for magic guardians who came to restore whatever balance was left here, or at any rate to prevent the place becoming a further battle ground between Good and Evil, with the long suffering Burvjarians caught between them.

The guardian Belthezor had come to Burvjara to restore the balance of the great plan and maybe as a consequence allow to continue  a war that had lasted generations. He had come to keep Good and Evil from a war the Burvjarians continued to fight when the reasons to go to war were lost in mythology and legend. In this realm it was no longer possible to know who was the enemy of whom. And impossible to stop the war by solving what it was that set it off.

Crawling along the ground, with demonic weapons, modified by Burvjara magic firing over his head, Cole Turner gagged on the smell of death in the air and the smell of fear, and the sulphur like smell of scorched earth. The agony and futility of a long, long war , had infected him as it infected the Burvjara. Every time he was forced to come back to this place, the pain of the realm hit him like an incurable illness.

He desperately wanted to leave this realm as fast as he could, leave it behind and never return, never again to feel the misery and futility of a war that had gone on to long, and so many generations that none of the combatants even understood why it had started.

 Cole wanted return to the safety of the manor and to his Phoebe, and just love her. He wanted to feel her body against his, smell her scent, become lost in her passion and forget the dark futility and pain of this realm. He wanted to pretend he never knew where the excesses of power and magic out of control could lead. He wanted to play with his children and convince himself he never saw what happens when the great powers of Good and Evil entered into a fray to ensure their own interests in the magic power of this place were preserved. He did not want to deal with the consequences of a process which lost any concern or caring for the combatants of this crazy never ending war. 

They came, both Good and Evil, interfered, took what they needed and failed  in their stated goals to 'protect' the realm . They were driven out by the guardians, driven out by Belthezor and still the war never ended. The recent demon invaders were lower level acid spewing fighters and a strange combative sect of hobgoblins whose chief claim to fame was an inability to understand when a fight was lost. They had come to Burvjara to gain control of the magic magnetic pole that was the centre of this realms existence and controlled the movement of all the realms in the part of the magic universe Cole and his brother Guardians, Therold, Proctor, Durand and Arturo guarded.  They  told the Burvjara combatants, whose side they had selected as the most vulnerable they were their to protect the pole but their invasion had just ended  when they were incinerated in a massive fireball that only a creature of immense magic such as the demon guardian Belthezor would have used. It still burned the atmosphere some 20 leagues from where Cole now was.

Prior to the demons, the guardian Belthezor had driven out  a small group of elvan whitelighters in fire burst of light and laser that had left them overwhelmed and in disarray. Cole gave them, finally, understanding what justice really was but despite what he had done to free the realm from these immediate interferences but  the war between the Burvjarians continued.

If Cole had ever had any doubts what could happen when the failure of evil allowed good to contort and implode this place had eliminated them. He had battled Burvjarians leaders who had no concept of leadership, He had threatened demons who had acted to control the magic core of this realm and as he called good to account when they forgot the souls of those they came to protect,  Cole  frequently doubted there was any solution, and this place really was a realm of magic creatures lost.

Cole crawled on, deep scratches on much of his now bare skin, the scorched blue earth burning him, hating this place and hating the Burvjarians for what they had made this place. He suddenly became aware that the noise was passing well over his head, and shuddered. It meant the combatants who had been allied with the demons he destroyed  had seen Glock and his small band and were going for the bigger kill.

The only sense, in his visits to this realm that Cole had been able to find was from Glock, a Burvjara combatant  and clan leader who had come to one of the many ceasefires called when the latest Great Power had failed to give their chosen side victory. Cole had previously heard Glock mentioned, sometimes with scorn, sometimes with ridicule, and just occasionally with respect that only an enemy can know. Glock's demeanour was deceptively simple and gentle. Born to a heritage of  war he acted with an innate honour toward his enemies, with gentle courtesy to his allies, and kept a good humoured resilience in the face of death, starvation and fear for his own clan. He could also fight like a lion possessed when the need was there and in this land it often was, so Cole had had ample opportunity to witness Glock's courage. Glock as were most of the Burvjara was linked by the magic of his soul to the magic pole of  the realm and was a  magic creature of great power.

For Cole this was the only form of hope he had found in this forsaken realm. If in the midst of this never ending war, it could produce creatures such as Glock then evil had not yet won.

Cole had more than respected him, he liked him and this was why he was now crawling across a scolded land burnt landscape, while Glock lead his clan to a place of relative safety. Some enemies of Glock and his clan, after realising Glock had a form of friendship with the great magic guardian who destroyed the last demon sect to offer them victory in exchange for control of the realm's magic, marked Glock and his clan for destruction and had their chance for  retaliation when Glock and his clan  had taken advantage of the Guardian's intervention to raid a stronghold for its small store of food and supplies.

So now Cole was drawing Glock's enemies attention and fire while Glock and his small band found a relatively safe place.

Glock and his companions were still not far enough away, and struggling with several ill members and some very young offspring. As the enemy firepower went over his head, Cole was aware that it was very close to Glock's small group. He decided very quickly that the best guarantee of escape for them was to risk some magic, regardless of the damage it did to what was left of the realm's environment.

Cole half rolled and lifting his hand sent a long crackling power bolt into the air. The alien, for this realm, magic  exploded into the air sending all the energy exploding like fireworks display that poured down on Cole burning his clothes and face and skin, melting most of  what was left of  Leo's parka. A flaming spiral buried itself deep in Cole's side and sent a spurt of Cole's demonic acid blood onto the ground where it burnt a huge gash in the ground.

The firepower worked, distracting the combatant force so they turned their attention back to Cole and he had to spin and throw himself on the ground as one low volley shot scorched past him, ripping another huge burn on his legs and back. He could feel the fire of the melted nylon on his back and rolled over putting out the burning material. The parka was clearly not going on any more of the trips to the snowfields that Piper and Leo took to reinvent the passion and companionship of their courting days.

Cole took a breath and kept on crawling. The fire explosion he had sent in the air brought the enemy fire to him and he suddenly laughed out loud in satisfaction. If crawling through the scorched beaten realm kept Glock  and his small band in existence and gave the realm some hope despite this mess of a magic war then Cole Turner, the Guardian Belthezor would crawl for cycles, for leagues if necessary. He would crawl  even though his body was covered in burn marks and  his ears and head were pounding from the noise of the weapons that were now directed at him and the fear the devastation around him induced threatened to overwhelm him.

Cole crawled on for  several leagues where he could finally see the place he was crawling too , a small set of caves at the bottom of a towering  ochre coloured cliffs .

He recognised them from a previous visit, how long ago he was not sure. Cole had trouble keeping track of the time,  a generation in this realm a couple of months, maybe a little more in the one he lived. He stood and raised one more bolt of power that spread into a fantastic kaleidoscope of light and ran for the caves, under its cover. He scrambled over rocks, and through god knows what in the cave which was so dark even his demonic site failed him.

Phoebe leapt off a desk using her levitation powers to kick a tow headed goblin faced  demon she toward Piper who blew it up . As she landed not quite as lightly as she could when she wasn't pregnant, she felt her whole body and her baby Pookie shudder. In her four months since Phoebe had become pregnant, the poor kid had survived her mother's active involvement in an average of 2 demon fights a week.

The fights had started when the damned Geztalt demon and its grey robed hooded cohorts had reappeared after some seventy years banishment by evil. Now once again, the Charmed Ones had discovered, the Geztalt were competing  with the Brotherhood of the Thorn demons for influence and power  in human institutions by manipulating an ideological  and secretive war against their declared enemy, Good. Phoebe as she landed had time to think about in-utero development and its psychological effect on her baby and hope that Pookie was going to understand not everything was about battles.

The Charmed Ones had so far managed to defeat them on every encounter but each encounter was getting bloodier for both sides. The Geztalts were not fighters. Like the Brotherhood and the rat demons they infiltrated financial institutions to finance their evil deeds. However unlike the secretive guerrilla battles of Brotherhood, and the rats who only fought when cornered, the Geztalts when they met opposition from Good, went straight to bloody battles. But instead of fighting themselves they contrived to induce the lower level minions to fight with talk of the glory of demondom, carefully manufactured panic over the danger the minions and the promise of never fulfilled rewards. Phoebe only just pregnant had had her throat slit by a razor demon in one of their encounters, and Paige had had an athame stuck between her ribs by an ex-mortal demon trying to find a way up the demon hierarchy. The ground soldiers, were sent on their way to the wastelands by the Charmed Ones but still the Geztalt were able to find others to fight their battles, leaving Piper particularly to curse their gullibility and the ways of evil that used promises of friendship to destroy its own cohorts.

The encounters with the Geztalt were apparently random which worried the Charmed Ones exactly what was going on and made all three sisters roundly curse the Elders for their inability to supply much information about the Geztalt. The Charmed Ones had become in this particular battle when Piper had been hit by a tax audit three months ago. It was only as a result of her meticulous, Paige said anal, record keeping and Cole, bailed up by an angry Piper between visits to Burvjara,  flicking his fingers to protect the accounts from manipulation and unauthorised alteration, nothing untoward had been discovered by the punctilious auditors. Other witches were not so lucky and many were reduced to desperate circumstances while the Elders preached about using magic as personal gain.

During the proceedings Piper had met  a low level witch who worked in Internal Revenue . This witch told Piper practitioners were being audited and being hit with enormous tax bills, at an alarming rate . the witch also  had discovered that statistically it was nearly impossible for that many witches to be audited under random searches.

After the Charmed One's  recent encounters with Geztalts in several other financial institutions, it  did not take much guess work to realise the culprits were the Geztalt. The present battle in the middle of a busy IRS office had happened when the Charmed Ones using Piper's problem's as an excuse, had planned to trap the human minions the Geztalts had apparently hired from their overlord to infiltrate the tax office but it had gone wrong when the Geztalts had also sent the goblin and acid fighter minions to turn the fight into a bloody battleground.

The Charmed Ones approached the office they knew the demons had set them up with an innocent as bait, but continued because this time they had managed to tempt the Geztalt itself out and they wanted to get it badly.  Twice before in their battles they had vanquished the leader  to be frustrated by its immediate return and this time they were going to get him properly. Piper had managed to sneak them through a number of security checks by freezing guards for an instant so they did not find the athames and potions the witches had hidden on themselves. However  a demon in a security guard suit, had waylaid her in a very open corridor and by the time she realised, another  at the large office where the set up was taking place searched Phoebe and found the athame and  potion they brought for the Geztalt s well as the potion for the all purpose minion vanquish because they had learnt that the only way to defeat the waves of minions sent in by the gutless Geztalt.

Both potions were securely frozen in the hand of the security guard when Piper finally escaped her capture and made it to the office to freeze the scene and Paige could not orb them out. And in this battle there were some 12 minions between the Charmed ones and the security guard who held there potion.

These acid fighters were small pointed eared goblin type creatures who fought with Long talons that spouted an acid that was lethal to any flesh covered creature. They had powerful upper bodies and fighters, there for the brawn and not the brains, covered in an armour and they had materialised as soon as Piper froze the scene.

The witches were not surprised.  As soon as they realised the Geztalt had set a trap, they expected the minions to arrive. Every time they fought the Geztalt's bought minions the pattern was the same. Some type of minion with a vicious brutal destructive weapon supported by some form of lower level human looking demons who were vanquish fodder that could easily  be spared.

As the Charmed Ones fought in the Internal Revenue office surrounded by frozen mortals, 3 severely injured ones only alive because of the freezing, they hoped the noise  was not noticed outside the office.

The Geztalt demon, winged by two of its cohorts, had appeared as it had the last two times the annihilation of the Charmed Ones had been expected. As the Battle had gone badly it for the sisters it arrived. The Charmed Ones realised it appeared to be there for the victory and presumably claim the credit.  This time they had planned the battle to encourage its appearance. It remained well back out of the action. It  stood to the side of internal revenue  office where Piper had frozen 6 staff , 8 customers and the two security guards who had been in the process of confiscating and arguing with Phoebe about why she had an athame pushed down the back of her pants.

Piper blew up the demon Phoebe kicked to her and then as Phoebe slammed another one to Paige, she glared at the demon watching. The Geztalt was good looking demon in its human form, pleasing to the eye, attractive, hot to some if you discounted the peevish mouth, weak chin and soulless eyes, and the gutless way it hid away and let the minions die for it. It stood back with its two cohorts which were hidden behind long grey cloaks and hoods, watching the minions it had induced to fight for it. It smirked slightly as the goblin faced soldiers and the low level ex mortals threw themselves at the witches, frowning with irritation as it  watched them being blown up in a cloud of, green goo and black powder, screaming in agony as they went. 

.The battle had left the office covered in green and black goo, broken furniture, destroyed computers and 3 innocents in a very bad way. Paige protected herself from two brawny goblins by calling for the athame the security guard left on the desk and orbing into one then bouncing it off another

Both blew up in a nauseating black and green goo bathe that splattered over the witches and the room and the frozen innocents. Seconds later Piper blew up another of the human demons which must have had some acid power as well because the whole mess was sprayed with it.  Phoebe managed to levitate away from it, but Piper and Paige were not so lucky, Piper throwing her arms over  her head was badly burned and Paige was caught across her back and her clothes disintegrated and her flesh burned.

The spray of acid also made the assault demons back away and it gave Phoebe time to get to the security guard demon and pry the potions free from the security guard/demon's hand.

She threw the first potion at 4 of the nearest demons, two acid/mortals and 2 assault hobgoblins and chanted the spell, and the area rained down acid and goo catching Phoebe right down her jeans and shoulder and finishing what was left of Paige's blouse and cargo pants, so she was left in slowly disintegrating knickers. Both of screamed in pain s the acid his them. Paige's face was only protected  by the layer of green goo.

Phoebe called power of three, and ignoring burns acid and a green goo they went to join Piper. The assault demons, on a direction from the Geztalt or maybe his cohorts, caught Piper by her arms as Phoebe and Paige approached.

The Geztalt from the safety of its distance called "Stop or they break your sister's back " a supercilious smile on its face.

Paige and Phoebe froze.

"Don't stop now" yelled Piper rigid in the demon hold' Don't" she roared.

Phoebe disregarding her pregnancy levitated her self to Piper. The goblin cracked at Piper as if she was a twist . Paige orbed an athame and  Phoebe coming out of the lift caught it and finished the demon off the athame.

As it was vanquished, Piper was thrown as hard against the counter near the Geztalt and she hit it with a sickening thud and slide to the ground. Paige and Phoebe used the other potion to dispatch the rest of the hobgoblins and the mortal minions clearly had enough. They,  with fearful glare at the Gestalt zapped away just as the Geztalt misjudging the way the battle was progressing moved to tower over Piper and enjoy her pain and its victory. Phoebe and Paige moved close while the two cohorts of the Geztalt curiously stood back and watched.

Phoebe threw the potion for vanquishing the Geztalt at it and regardless of its presence rushed around it to kneel and hold Piper's hands. With their support Piper whispered the power of Three spell with her sisters.

The two cohorts faceless behind their hoods shimmered away leaving their leader to be vanquished as a result of its carelessness in the field of battle.

The demon the Geztalt left behind by its two hooded and shadowed cohorts behind went up in a satisfactory explosion of the dark black ash and flame that added to the general mess of the office

"That will learn the gutless bastard to stand back behind the lines and watch its minions die for it." Paige snarled.

Phoebe bent over a moaning Piper and tried to support her.

"Don't touch "whimpered Piper  "Back ..not good, can't feel .."

"Broke "asked Phoebe trying not to be concerned. "Mark" she called keeping her voice calm and pretending she did not hear the rattling at the office door that clearly said those outside the freeze where trying to get in.

Paige running over to them slipped in the goo but made it just as Mark, her one time boss at the employment centre, now whitelighter and secret lover, wearing baggy  jeans and an off  white shirt that really did not fit, his sandy hair maybe even more receding than when he Paige had first met him, orbed in.

Calmly, he took in the scene, as Paige eyes lit up at his arrival.  Without any sense of panic or hasty movement Mark squatted down beside Piper. He quietly asked Paige to help him move Piper so he could put his hands on he back. He shook head as Phoebe offered to do it, smiling slightly as he glanced at her already large belly, even though she was only four months pregnant.

"You okay "he asked seriously "Nothing happen in the fight."

"Don't you dare try and tell me not to be me, that I'm pregnant and that stops me fighting . "Phoebe spat said wiping goo from her hair and realising the acid had burnt huge hunks out of it. .

Mark's only reaction was to smile wryly as he put his hands on Piper's back.

And working herself up to a state "Do you think I could face my children, Patsy Pookie , " Phoebe demanded "Do you think if I could feel I could guide Melinda if I used that as an excuse to neglect innocents.?"

"I wouldn't dream of thinking such a thing" Mark answered gently, catching a smile of approval from Paige. He was well aware how proud Paige was that nothing her sisters said or did to infuriate Mark worked.

Mark nodded and the orb lights from his hands showed and Paige and Phoebe could both hear her vertebrae snap back

"They'll be in breaking in here in about 10 seconds " Phoebe said urgently, accepting with a wry grin that pressure was not going to make Mark get angryany more than bratty behaviour, snarking or insults.

'Piper move and then moaned. "You sure you got it into place?" she asked. "It feels bad."

"I healed your back" Mark replied gently said. "Just some stretched ligaments I guess but ask Leo, he knows more than me about the actual medical side."

"This damn witch stuff will be the death of me "Piper sighed as Paige helped her to her feet."

"The door" said Phoebe urgently.

Piper flung her hands dramatically "Ouch she muttered as she caught her back. "That will give us 30 seconds. I froze the whole floor. Some of those innocents are not on a good way" she told Mark.

"I know "he said and moved toward them, but not before his eyes lit up and he smiled as he as took in that Paige wearing only the remains of he knickers Very attractive Pet" he said. The smile faded as saw the acid burns.

Mark put his hand gently on her breast and the orbs lit up and the acid burns  covering half her back and body disappeared.

"Ο didn't even notice "Paige sighed.

"You would have in a few minutes" Mark answered stealing a kiss on her nose,

"What about me?  Phoebe demanded 'that bloody acid hurts" she added "Just in case you have forgotten."

It's not likely," Mark answered evenly and put his hands on both her shoulders, with a slight sizzle the acid burns healed, leaving Phoebe standing there in a ripped and burnt silk blouse and tattered pants that Pookie was falling out of..

Phoebe touched her hair. "You could have fixed that "she said as she felt the singed ends.

'"Yes I could have" said Mark evenly.

"Some-one will break it any second" Piper interrupted urgently "the more I freeze, the weaker it gets "

"I know "replied Mark refusing to be rattled while Paige smiled with pride, Piper raised her eyes in irritation and Phoebe glowered.

"Mark hurry" urged Piper as the door banging started.

"Freeze it once  more" he asked Piper pleasantly and then went to each of the innocents, and fixed the results of the burns.

'"That one isn't an innocent "Phoebe told him  as Mark healed the man behind the counter "it’s a lost soul"

"I'm not a judge" Mark answered.

As he healed the innocents of burns, he glanced around the trashed office, "Quite a battle victorious "he said easily.

"Not the end of the war though " answered Piper "that is the third time we got the Geztalt"

"No its not" Mark agreed calmly  "You better orb Pet "he said to Paige as the banging on the door sounded. Paige took a second to steal a quick kiss, leaving  green goo all over Mark's shirt. She grabbed her sisters as the door came down and the innocents started to unfreeze.

Mark took half a second to drop some incriminating evidence on the lost soul that the Elders felt  was better the witches did not know about and orbed, leaving it to explain just what in the hell happened in the trashed office.

"War is hell? "Mark murmured to himself as he orbed.

…………………………………………….

Far into the cave in the realm Burvjara, where Cole was sure the light would not reflect, and he was safe from igniting the air with his magic, he took the time to touch his great demonic power and release his mortal self and allow the demonic created being he really was to heal the worst of the grazes and scratches and deep burns of magic firepower and melted nylon in his back. He was reluctant to do to much healing in this realm where his power was as dangerous as an atomic weapon, so the best he could do was stop the acid burning and heal most of the burns to deep ugly bruises.  As the demonic power took him over and the light of the spirit being he was healed him and lit up the darkness, Cole swung around as he heard noises behind him and he cursed as he realised he was being followed. Cole crawled deeper into the cave where the putrid unbreathable atmosphere, protected whoever followed from the atmosphere's reaction to his magic, Cole shimmered, leaving the alien atmosphere exploding in a blast of light.

Cole found another buried bunker several thousand paces away in the hills from where he hoped Glock had lead his band to some semblance of safety for a day or two. He hoped to god as the sun set, the flash of his shimmering into the bunker was just seen as another light in the flashing of lights from weapons in this never ending war of the realm.

Cole holding his breath against the putrid rank smells and air of the bunker clawed his way to the opening high on the side of barren hill. Carefully avoiding sending stones and gravel and shale into a landslide that lit up the night sky in a spectacular show of fluorescent orange dust, and alerted the combatants of all sides where he was, he crawled his way down, putting more bruises and gashes over those that he had healed. Cole shivered because  this realm turned very cold at night and he cursed himself for not remembering to manufacture something warm while he was in the cave where the realm was protected from his magic..

To combatants who spent their lives hiding in barren inhospitable places the frost was a way of life, as was the heat of the day. Cole however bitterly felt the cold as he slipped his way down the hill, stumbling occasionally as shale gave in a small orange cloud, he prayed went unnoticed. Down the hill he made his way to the place of hiding, many more thousand paces away, one of the many hidden and vaguely safe natural and magic hamlets that combatants had fought around and for and about for generations.

Cole knew he had found the right place when he passed a pyre of three bodies some 300 steps from where he hoped to find Glock and his band. Cole mused bitterly on this last tradition of a higher order in a society that only knew war. The combatants left their dead on an unlit funeral pyre and this was ignited by the opponents when they finally overtook the area again.

Cole audibly groaned as he recognised the body of a female and a small offspring as well as combatant. He hated Burvjara and he hated this war, and he hated being reminded that Phoebe and his children could be vulnerable in the wars that were fought in his own realm.

He finally made his way into the camp.  It was a makeshift affair using the remains of generations of camps, a few small heating circles, stones lit and warmed with the magic of the Burvjara, some food, trapped vermin and the rice like grain that Glock and his band had risked their lives to steal from the combatants who at this point of time held the few remaining arable places in this realm was cooking on the warmed stones.

Somehow in all the devastation the ability to survive was never quite lost to the Burvjarians. Cole did not know whether this was a tribute to the tenacity of good, or the strength of evil. All he knew was  that in a place where the means of supporting life seemed all but destroyed, the instinct to survive  meant the Burvjarians dragged out their pain until they fell in war leaving another generation of offspring to continue the fight.

The Burvjarians watched him come, wary not quite trusting him. A magic people, once one of the most sophisticated of magic realms, they understood about the "others" as they called the ones who came to their realm to protect them, steal from them or tell them how to fix it..  'Others" came as demons to offer weapons Others were also minions of Good coming to tell the Burvjarians to turn the other cheek and give Good control of the magic pole then leaving when they failed to et control of the magic pole leaving behind only a stronger sense of despair. Φthers never stayed long.

Cole had earned their respect to varying degrees, at least he came back and he did not preach or offer solutions that satisfied his own sense of progress and left the war torn Burvjarians even more desperate. He walked the line between all combatants from all clans and sides, and managed to get them to talk. He did not moralise and did not fuss when they were reduced to thievery and worse to merely survive. He usually assisted survival.  And it was not just Glock's side.

Several combatants hiding under their ragged dark, cloaks, in the deep pockets of which they traditionally carried all their belongings, nodded to him, and a couple of the off spring, planted their hands on their hips and openly stared at him To Cole these were not a pretty people with orange wrinkled skin, yellow eyes and scalded trunk like noses and bald chromes but it was clear they felt exactly that about Cole. He smiled at the offspring and one openly stuck out an orange yellow tongue at him.

This band who owed him this nights meal and their lives, nodded as he approached. One female with two offspring hanging beside her indicated the food with an inclination of her head but he smiled and shook his head. He saw her turn her trunk like nose up.

Cole found a spot under one of the overhangs, satisfied at least 'he had got them the food and not at the cost of the lives of the opposing combatants. He would wait until the next light of day and ensure all combatants were at a safe distance and any light from his magic was hidden in the bright sun's rays. He would slip back to his own realm, having spent nearly a cycle or month in this realm, full long hard days that accounted for roughly five hours of the time of his own realm.

After eating the band did those things they needed to do, cleaned weapons, fixed the garments of offspring, repaired damage to the great hobnail boots they wore which in this terrain were the difference between life and death. Burvjara risked their lives to keep their boots, because the acid in the terrain rotted away unprotected flesh.  This small band ,having survived another day, settled down to complete the chores that were the normal business of their daily lives.  Afterward they huddled together to sleep,  their robes pulled tightly about them. The heated stones allowing them some warmth without any light that gave their hideaway  away to the enemy that not so far away had would pass the night in much the same way.

....................................................................