THE SAGAS OF A FWA NES

Neither a planet nor a Universe, A Fwa Nes is an exploded "place". Its threatened survivors are fighting to regrow a new and much larger "place" from the fragments that remain. Their heroic challenges appear inside.

	NOL ATUN Nol Atun has been flying on her temporary wings to seek out the Kurbust. This gigantic wormlike creature, an A Fwa Nes explosion survivor, eats the crystal-and-stone beasts the humans have been growing as nuclei of the new "place". Nol Atun waits with her sword for the Kurbust to appear. Since it prefers human flesh to any other, the Kurbust will attack her at once. Then, one or the other will die. She doesn't see the great fiery-red, soundless blast behind her, the silent bellow of the charging beast. But she is very uneasy and has never been taken unawares.
	SISTERACT Three sisters, Azi, Wridha, and Fen, are on a double mission. While roaming aerial space, they are seeking and destroying Kurbusts and other mattereating monsters, as well as an insane human who's killing humans and destroying fragments and other building blocks. Also, they are creating building "material," halfalive stone-and-crystal beasts. Just now, through their tapping by psychic means of dormant energy coils in the space-matter matrix, they have formed a new creature. This is the vast green beast just appearing out of seemingly nothing. But the strain drives Wridha even closer to madness and to becoming a destroyer. Azi and Fen may have to kill her.
	THE BAISNATH BONE Ta Breith has discovered the hipbone of Baisnath. This titanic beast was apparently killed in the explosion that tore A Fwa Nes apart. Flying scavengers have picked the bone clean. Ta Breith is propelling the bone toward a collection of crystal beasts, other animals, and objects that form one of the nuclei to be used in the new "place." But the mental control of the energy used for the propulsion demands great concentration. And leakage from the energy channels may result in a blast that will disintegrate Ta Breirh. Nothing is easy or safe in any universe.
	ZNUGS AND ATAWI The male, Znugs, and the female, Atawi, are a team of psycho-matter shapers who've been very successful at working to make nucleus material. Behind them to one side is a mass of matter brought forth from energy. But transformation with psychic means is always dangerous and tricky. Suddenly, Znugs is receiving energy instead of sending it out. And the raw energy begins to change his assumed shape into his real one. In fact, he is a Kreeg pretending to be human for his own destructive goals. Now, the horrified Atawi must recover quickly and kill him before he becomes a complete Kreeg and devours her.
	MLENFEE Mlenfee of the Tribe of Usza Farr discovered a very large fragment of the annihilated A Fwa Nes. Unlike most others, it still had soil, vegetation, water, and animal and aerial life. It also had a colony of Wargi, cousin monsters of the Kreegs. The Wargi captured Mlenfee and imprisoned her in chains. Before they could finish their probing of her mind, she escaped by mentally breaking through a weak point in the matter fabric of A Fwa Nes. Suddenly, she was in a parallel "place", across a river from a great city. By deciding to enter the city, she ensured the deaths of most of the human inhabitants of this "place." She did not know that the Wargi would follow her.
	EAHNAH'S WINDOW Eahnah-called witch by some, master scientist by others-has perfected a device that she calls a "window." It permits her to stay safe in A Fwa Nes while viewing a limited portion of Earth. The "window" is near the weak place in the space-time fabric, the opening through which Mlenfee entered Earth's universe and ventured into Manhattan. Eahnah has been called to help rid the city of the Wargi, and she is just now destroying, by mental means, a major tower whose present occupants, all Wargi monsters, will soon be dead. Unfortunately, and ironically, all the heat released will cause a new Ice Age-within a few years, not millennia.
	GILKARTH'S ODYSSEY The efforts to collect all the fragments of A Fwa Nes and grow a new world have failed. Now, all humans and sentient nonhumans are heading for the newly made "gates" to another universe. To be exact, Earth. Gilkarth, a warrior who lacks psychic talents but makes his legendary way with brains and brawn, may have ended his journey. He has to kill a Hrouth, the Snake Known As Unkillable. And a Kurbust and a Wargi are waiting to attack the victor. The planet looming behind the battlers is Earth as Gilkarth imagines it. His imagination is what has made him conqueror in many dangerous situations, and it has given him the cunning and strength of a dozen half-gods.
	EAHNAH IN THE ICE AGE Eahnah is exploring what was once called the temperate zone of the northern hemisphere of Earth. She's appalled by what she caused, and she should be. Though she doesn't know it, this Ice Age is the worst in Earth's long existence. She also doesn't know that the Wargi have located their greatest enemy and will soon close in on her. She's unaware because her energies are locked into maintaining body warmth through her superb metabolic control. If the Wargi can seize her, they'll be able to keep her from flying away. But they had better kill her at once, or she'll brave the savage cold and use her energies to burn them to ashes.
	EAHNAH IN THE TROPICS Most of the tropical zone of Earth has been devastated by the war between the humans of Earth and of A Fwa Nes, and the nonhuman Kurbusts and Wargi. Eahnah has transported herself via psychic means from the vast glaciers of the North to the deserts of the equator and contiguous land. Sometimes, during her survey of the bare rocks of the wastelands, she rests but keeps on traveling. Just now, she's sitting on the back of a crawling Murnashk, a monster that came to Earth from A Fwa Nes. Though fearsome looking, the Murnashk is no danger for humans. In the devastation, Eahnah dreams of the rebirth of Earth, an event she'll help bring about.
	SHALIGAR Shaligar, a human survivor of Earth's tropical zone, aspires to be a god. He's killed a half-god in cornbat and thus has absorbed his foe's excess energy. He must discharge this via his hands now and then, or he'll burn up. He can only do this when he's in danger. While fleeing from the half-metal lava-eater, Shaligar's energy bursts forth. He must fight the thing. However, if he kills it, then he has ten times as much energy to dissipate and so must go up against even more formidable dangers-the remaining Kurbusts and Wargi. The next step is always harder.
	BRITORGAN The foremost heroine of the ancient days in the place called A Fwa Nes, in the time before the place exploded, was Britorgan of the Flaming Hair. As a slayer of the dragonlike sentients imperiling all of humankind, Britorgan was unmatched. Yet, in the final battle between the two champions, Britorgan and Oda, through magic gone awry, Britorgan's body was occupied by Oda's soul, and his body was occupied by her soul. Thus, Britorgan, the battle's winner, was the loser, and the loser, Oda, was the winner. Britorgan remained in the hated body until she died.
	SARI-KOON Sari-Koon is the daughter of Gilkarth andy Eahnah. She roams the area at the edge of the glaciers, which are melting. Her companion is a giant male wolf who depends on her to find game for him. He provides protection and wordless but empathetic friendship. He also has a talent for detecting their prey. Just now, Sari-Koon stares across the icy waters at an island green with dwarf pines. She knows from the wolf's whines that two Wargi are there. Once they're dead, her tour of duty will be done, and she can go home.

Art by Boris Vallejo.
Text by Philip Joss Farmer.

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