Farmgate

Each day began the same: breakfast as a family around the table. Vegemite on toast, fresh orange juice, and the smell of Uncle Glenn’s morning cigarette drifting in from the verandah. The dogs would bark at the magpies, someone would grumble about the forecast, and the world outside always felt a little further away than it had the night before.

Josh took a sip of juice and let the taste sit on his tongue. He still wasn’t used to how sweet everything seemed now—since the change. The orange juice was almost too sharp, the toast too dry. Even the burnt edge of Uncle Glenn’s cigarette from outside felt like a signal flare going off in his sinuses. But it was a kind of peace, this breakfast. A rhythm he hadn’t had in a long time.

Josh worked hard, then spent the afternoons fishing at the river with the boys. Tiff preferred to spend her downtime with her fiancé at his house in Blayney, who also worked at the farm. The boys liked him and preferred for Tiff to have some time away from the place. She could be intense.

One afternoon, they were fishing at the usual spot when Robert noticed some huge pig tracks which led them to a fence that had been destroyed by a boar’s rooting. The ground was overturned with massive burrows, as if the boar were the size of a car. Josh gave the ground a sniff and caught a whiff of mana.

“Whoa. This smells like magic,” he told the boys.

“Maybe we should go get Tiff and Dad?” Robert suggested quietly.

An hour later, Tiff and her partner Jett arrived in Tiff’s Ute alongside Uncle Glenn, who was on a quad bike with a rifle strapped across the front.

He unclipped the rifle and pointed it at the ground, double-checking the safety was on and that there wasn’t a round in the chamber. Then he pointed it at the ground again, making sure not to put his finger anywhere near the trigger. These were the habits he’d instilled in all of them from a young age.

They took one look at the tracks, and then Tiff stepped away from the group and gestured for Josh to join her.

“Whatever this is. Can you track it?” she asked quietly.

“Definitely.”

“Okay, then we’ll go out tonight with the rifles and spotlights. I don’t want to take any chances, so we’ll assemble a bit of a crew.”

“Let’s do it,” Josh nodded.

A few hours later, Ben was tucked safely into his warm bed. He’d begged to come but Bruce had promised him a hunting trip together where he’d teach him a few things first. That calmed him—reluctantly.

When Josh got to the hayshed with his cousins, there were six Utes gathered. Each one had two men in the back tray—one with a spotlight and one with a rifle. He jumped into the back of Tiff’s car with Bruce and Robert joining him in the tray and Jett riding shotgun. Bruce was holding the spotlight, and Josh elbowed him gently in the ribs, nodding to their younger cousin who held the rifle just like Uncle Glenn.

“He’s a way better shot than me,” Bruce said with a shrug.

Josh loved that about his cousin. Despite the fact he seemed like he’d inherited half of Superman's power set, he still held onto his humble attitude with sincerity. Josh wondered what Atlassian would do with someone so powerful and decided on the spot he’d never tell them about his cousins if he could avoid it. Over the last week, he’d seen Bruce use his super strength and bursts of speed. He would make one hell of a portal agent.

They set out with Tiff’s Ute at the front of the convoy. Josh held onto the cab and sniffed the air deeply as they drove out over the dusty dirt road.

The headlights bounced across the narrow fire trail, catching possums and foxes in brief flashes. The scent was close now, and Josh could feel the static-like prickle of mana along the back of his neck. He tapped once on the cab’s roof, then twice more, and Tiff brought the Ute to a crawl. In the rear trays, the spotters raised their torches and rifles like old bushrangers, scanning the dense scrub with jittery focus.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Then it hit him—musky, earthy, tinged with mana. Fresh.

He shouted directions into the cab, and soon they were driving deep into the bush on a narrow fire trail, their convoy of hunters behind them. It didn’t take long before they heard the first squeal.

It sounded like a dinosaur.

A ferocious roar that cut through the night like a banshee screaming in unbridled fury.

They pushed on into the dark bush, spotlights failing to penetrate the thick scrub as they searched for signs of the beast.

Then Josh tapped on the cab again, and they stopped in the middle of the trail. He inhaled deeply and called out:

“It’s here.”

He heard the sound of multiple rifles being cocked over the idling engines of the convoy. The men with the torches scanning the dense scrub intently for any sign of movement.

“THERE!” shouted the spotter in the car directly behind Josh and his cousins.

His torch beam reflected off two glowing red eyes in the night, and a horrible squeal broke out as the boar shot out of the bush and rammed the Ute, flipping it and sending the men scattering from the tray like bowling pins.

The beast was easily the size of a small truck, outweighing the Utes at least two to one. It appeared to be a normal boar except for its sheer size and the glowing red eyes, which it then cast on Josh, lining him up for the next charge.

A rifle fired from next to Josh, and although Robert’s aim was precise, the bullet failed to penetrate the boar's thick fur. The beast charged, and Josh let loose a super bark—the sonic shockwave hit the boar dead on, sending it careening into a nearby gum tree which toppled over with the weight of the impact. It regathered itself only to find roots sprouting up out of the ground, securing its legs to the earth. Tiff was crouched, touching the ground just outside her drivers door.

It howled in fury as Bruce flashed through the night, grabbed the fallen tree, and with a grunt, picked it up and slammed it down on the giant boar, crushing it in one mighty blow and sending a mighty crack out into the night.

The men from the overturned Ute were unharmed, and the thing even started back up after Bruce turned it back the right way. Good old farm Utes.

Bruce kicked at the boar’s massive corpse and let out a long breath. “That’s a lot of bacon...” he said tenderly.

Josh sat on the edge of the tray, letting his adrenaline ebb. Someone offered him a bottle of water and he took it gratefully, his hands still trembling slightly from the shock of the charge. Around them, the bush returned to silence. Even the cicadas had gone quiet.

“Christ,” someone muttered. “Imagine if we didn’t find it first.”

Then Josh caught the scent of the gate.

He told Tiff, and soon they were on foot, following Josh as he pushed through the dense bush, using a stick to ward off spider webs as his nose worked overtime, the mana tickling his nostrils.

They found it in a small clearing, a shimmering blue gate that pulsed in the night.

Josh let out a sigh. “Goddammit.”

“What do we do here, Good Boy?” Tiff asked him.

“I call it in. They’ll contain it, and the wildlife shouldn’t experience any more mutations,” he answered.

She offered a fist and he smiled, giving it a bump.

“Good work. You’re great at your job. It suits you,” she said.

Josh tried not to let his surprise at the compliment show on his face.

“Thanks, Tiff. Same with you,” he said softly—and she actually smiled.

This time Josh couldn’t hide his shock.

***

He called Richard immediately, and before he knew it, his two worlds collided. Choppers landed in the clearing with Atlassian agents spilling out to assemble the portal containment ring. Atlassian had designed it to contain the gates and stop ambient mana exposure from occurring.

Richard himself climbed out of one of the choppers, wearing a plain white business shirt and smart black slacks with shoes that became more dusty with every step.

He gave Josh a smile.

“How are you feeling?” he asked.

Josh considered it for a moment.

“Not ready,” he said confidently.

Richard nodded.

“Of course. We’ll touch base soon.”

He looked past Josh at the gum tree still cracked in half from the boar’s impact, and then down at the thick disturbed soil. “Good work,” he said gruffly.

Josh nodded, uncertainly. Making sure not to glance at Bruce.

Richard offered one last tight-lipped smile before stepping back into the chopper. The rotors thundered overhead, shaking the leaves of the bush as Josh stood watching it disappear into the night sky.