Chapter 26

It was getting late, but I needed to speak with the manager of the mine. Jesse and Ursus accompanied me, with Ursus in his human form. "Since it’s late, I think we should go to his room," I suggested.

"Do you think that’s okay? If he’s in his room, he would be on his own time," Ursus replied.

"That’s true, but we have to talk to him for reasons beyond what you think. The mine is closed down. His job is... wait a minute." ‘Karl, I need to talk to you. Can we talk now? ‘

‘I see you must have realized that all the miners are no longer in your employ,’ Karl remarked.

‘How did you know what I want to talk about?’ I asked.

‘Before I answered your request to talk, I asked Leo where you were. Since you’re about to knock on the manager’s door, it became a simple deduction on my part. Please don’t disturb him. I will have him clear some time and contact you in the morning when he can meet with you. I know you are wondering who is paying the payroll for the miners. All of them that are going to help with building the park are on my payroll. The few who left to find work elsewhere received generous compensation. Of course, the ones who became members received compensation as well, but in a different way. Just ask Leo; he can explain it.’

‘Alright, we’ll wait for your call tomorrow,’ I said.

‘Bring all the spirits with you when you meet with the manager. Until tomorrow,’ Karl concluded our conversation.

"I should have known that none of the miners work for me. Karl mentioned that the ones who wanted to help build and run the park could do so. Karl has kept them on his payroll. The miners who joined our pack are our responsibility. Let’s go back to our cave. We need to speak to Leo to find out what’s happening," I explained.

"What does Leo have to do with any of this?" Jesse asked.

"That’s what I’d like to know. Ursus, can you take us there right now?" I requested.

"Yes, Master," Ursus replied, placing a hand on both Jesse and me. In an instant, we were in our cave. It had a new room that held the spying equipment, as well as the new internet computers and servers.

"That IT guy is on the ball. It looks like we’ll be up and running any time now," Jesse stated.

Leo was in the room with a few men. I guessed one of them must be the IT guy. "Leo, we need to talk. Can you break away?" I asked.

"Yes, Master, we’re done for the day."

"Karl explained that the men who joined the Oasis received different compensation than the other miners. He said you knew about it and suggested I speak to you," I said, curious.

"Yes," he replied, a hint of relief in his voice. "Since the men do not need money in the Oasis, Karl provided us with a substantial sum to invest, just as we are doing for you and Jesse. Should the time come when they need money, we will make it available to them. We hadn’t mentioned it before because we thought it might place another burden on your shoulders. I hope I didn’t offend you, Master."

I shook my head. "You didn’t offend me. In fact, what you’re doing with the money is precisely what I would have suggested, anyway."

"Really?" he asked, surprise showing in his eyes.

"Please, introduce me to the men who are helping here," I urged, glancing around the nearly finished space. "This place looks almost ready!"

The four men, hearing Leo call me ‘Master,’ appeared apprehensive about my request to be introduced. I raised my hands and waved them, saying, "It’s nothing bad; I just want to know the men who are doing such a great job. At least one of you must be the IT guy, and he’ll be working here most of the time."

Leo shepherded the four men up to meet me. They still did not look convinced that I genuinely wanted to meet them. "You’ve all met Ursus; one of you has him as your leader. The one next to Master is his mate, Jesse. You can address Master as Sir or Keith. I never address him as Master in public."

I raised my hand to stop Leo. "What Leo is trying to convey is that I do not want you to call me ‘Master.’ The spirits believe they don’t show me respect if they call me by my name or some title. Jesse and I are just like you. We’re all men with the same mental make-up. I prefer you call me Keith. If you feel the same way as the spirits, then ‘Sir ’ is acceptable; ‘Boss’ works too, as Jesse and I are your employers. I only tolerate ‘Master’ with the spirits, and even then, in public, they must call me Keith or Sir." I concluded my explanation.

"So, you don’t think you’re better than us?" asked the tallest of the four.

"We’re all the same here. Jesse and I want to build a community of men like us—a safe place where we are free to be who we are."

"You’ll find that Keith is just as normal as you and me. He didn’t ask for what happened to him; he even wanted to refuse it, but that was not possible. Yes, he has the power to control the spirits, but not by choice. The five that bonded with us became part of Keith and myself in a way that’s different from how they bond with you. Heck, he can’t even do what some of you can or will do in the near future," Jesse interjected, offering his understanding of me.

Leo then spoke, "Introduce yourselves: name and a little about your background."

The short, chubby man spoke first. "Names Paul. They informed us that sir-names aren’t needed here. I’m the IT guy. I worked for Mr. Hodgkin in Texas, and he convinced me to come here and help for a while, which has turned into a few years now. The internet should be up and running tomorrow, but the other equipment will take some time."

"Is it going to take a few days or a few weeks for the system to be fully operational?" I asked, seeking clarification.

"It’s running on a custom operating system based on Linux. If your programer set up everything correctly, it might take just a few days. If not, it could drag on for weeks or even longer," Paul explained. He noticed my concern about the timeframe.

"We’ll discuss the system’s purpose later; Keith and I will talk to you in private. If there’s any issue with the system, we have access to the programmer," Jesse assured them.

The tall guy, Tony, introduced himself next. "I’ve been a miner here since I was old enough to work. I’ve been learning to become a programmer, but my progress has been slow because of the poor internet connection the town has. Paul, lets me help out in the IT department."

"My name is River. I’ve lived here all my life. The only well-paying job around here is in mining, and I can operate almost everything the mine has," River shared.

"I’m Tod. I used to own my truck and worked as a long-haul driver until it broke down here. I couldn’t afford to fix it, so it got repossessed. I’ve been working here ever since," Todd explained his background.

"None of you mentioned what you can do now that your members of the pack/den. Have your leaders explained this to you?" I asked, curious about their abilities.

"Knowing and being able to do are two different things. Speaking for myself, I haven’t been able to form clothes or change my body—at least not yet," Todd responded.

"Have any of you, you know, fooled around with someone who can?" Jesse asked. No one answered.

‘I guess we could use these guys as our test subjects,’ I told Jesse.

‘I was thinking the same thing,’ he replied.

"The spirits informed you upfront that I have the power to make you want to do things. I would never do that with ill intentions. Many members are facing the same issues you have. If you’re open to it, Jesse and I can run a controlled test on you. I think you’ll enjoy it. What do you say? If you’re not interested, that’s alright too."

"Are you saying, like, sex with the spirits?" Todd asked to confirm his understanding.

"Sex with all of us, yes, but that’s not how it will start. Hopefully, that’s how it will end," I said.

The four of them agreed. "Follow us. Where we’re taking you is off-limits. You wouldn’t be able to find it, let alone get in without our permission," Jesse informed them.

"It’s the cave where we first met the five spirits. The spirits transformed it into our personal space," I explained.

*****

"WOW, this is amazing! All of this came from the spirit plane?" Todd asked, eyes wide with wonder.

"Almost everything you see originated from there. Jesse brought some items to the cave before I met him, mostly camping gear. We have everything we need here. Are you guys interested in seeing the Vessel cave before we get started?" I asked.

"Oh, can we? I’m very interested in seeing that!" Paul exclaimed.

The others followed me to the Vessel cave. Along the way, they caught glimpses of the other sections: the dungeon, the hot spring pool room, and our sleeping area. I skirted around that, and when we reached the back, I let them enter the Vessel cave.

Seeing how the Vessel cave had changed, "I knew it! Those guys couldn’t resist," Jesse said with a big smirk on his face.

‘If we had known you were going to turn our Vessel cave into a tourist spot, we would have done this ages ago,’ Omega quipped.

As I entered, I saw Jesse pointing at the new vessels. In the cave’s forefront were the original vessels of the spirits, posed as when I first saw them. Cobra was in the back, low to the ground. I thought he would have insisted on being posed like the others.

Todd said, "So Ursus called Orase, and you changed his name. I can see why you named him Ursus. He did resemble a bear."

"Fenrir was called Balasof," River told everyone. "You should have called him a werewolf. He looks like what all the old tales say. Can I ask why you named him Fenrir, sir?"

"I agree. He does look like a werewolf. That term is used to frighten people, and I did not want him to go around with that stigma. Looking through a lot of texts, I found Fenrir in an old Norse myth. It’s the name of the wolf that is the father of all wolves," I explained.

"How did Salita become Cobra? He looks more like a python than a cobra," Tony asked.

"The names of the spirits came from the genus of the animal they closely matched here on Earth. With a snake, the genus name was too long, and I did not want that for him. I told him that many men use tattoos of different animals, and some use the tattoo as their nickname. The most common snake tattoo is the cobra, as men see it as the strongest snake," I answered Tony’s question as best as I remembered.

Paul was in the back, examining the new vessels of the five spirits. "There’s no vessel for Omega."

"That’s because Omega is the merging of the other five," Jesse said, to remind Paul of the knowledge he received when he first joined the pack.

"Oh yes, sorry, I kind of forgot that."

‘Look up and you will see,’ Omega said to everyone here.

On the cave ceiling was an engraved depiction of Omega, granted, not life-size. ‘You did that just to satisfy your own ego,’ I said to Omega.

‘As time goes on, we will add more to what is here,’ Omega responded.

"Why don’t we all go to the weight room? It has the most room to move around," Jesse suggested.