Free Shadow Warrior: Destiny of a Mutant by Larry Townley

luck, Will Essex of Terra. You will need it.”
    Portak then vanished from Will’s dream, and Will woke up in bed. Will knew that he must get some rest as his arduous journey would begin soon. He hoped that he would be up to whatever challenges he would have to face. With that, Will turned over and drifted off to a restful sleep.
    ***
    A few days later, Will told his family that he had made a decision to leave home and start his own life. They were a little shocked that he had made this decision so quickly. He did not share the entire truth with them, especially of his contact with Portak or where he was headed. Instead he told them that he had decided to become a merchant seaman. He left for London within the week and would be part of a crew on a spice ship.
    As Will was packing the night before he was to leave, his mother came into his bedroom to speak with him.
    “Will, answer me truthfully: Shall I ever see you again?” she asked, as tears flowed like water from her eyes.
    Will sighed deeply before answering her. “I honestly don’t know, Mother.”
    His mother nodded her head and dabbed at her eyes with the sleeve of her dress.
    “I’ve always known this day would come; that you would leave this place and seek your own way in the world. You will always be special to me, Will, and I shall miss you dearly.” She paused and then continued. “But, I know that your future does not lie in this place, and that you must find it far away from here. I know that you shall seek your destiny in a way that I cannot possibly understand. I just pray that I shall have the chance to see you again before I die.”
    With that said she hugged Will tightly, kissed him on the forehead, and left his room.
    As she left, tears fell from Will’s eyes. Will finished packing and tried to sleep, but his mind was flooded with too many thoughts for that to happen.
    ***
    The next morning Will ate breakfast and bade his family farewell. His mother made him take a loaf of bread and some cheese with him for when he got hungry later. Over the years Will had managed to save most of the money he had earned unloading cargo from the ships coming into the port of Ravenglass. He left half of the money he had earned in a bag, along with a note for his parents to use the money as they saw fit, on his bed, and took the other half with him for his travel and other expenses.
    Will began his voyage by walking towards the harbor in Ravenglass Village. He turned and looked at his family and home one last time. He then headed towards a large three-masted ship berthed at the end of the nearest pier. He had managed to secure passage on an eastbound spice ship heading towards London as a deckhand. Once they arrived in London, the ship would take on additional cargo, and would leave England three days later.
    His journey had begun.
     
    Chapter 15
     
    Clandestine Anti-Aircraft Battery Placement
    Near Stuttgart, Germany
    August 1942
     
    Corporal Freling had just gotten up to stretch his legs and take a smoke break. As he lit up his cigarette and slowly blew out a puffy white cloud in front of his face, he looked up in the sky, and for a second he thought he saw an object appear and disappear a couple times high above him. He blinked and rubbed his eyes and initially attributed it to the sun playing tricks on his eyes. However, after this phenomenon happened for the third time, he called to Sergeant Klausmann to come and take a look.
    “Eric, come and take a look at this!”
    “What is it, Johann? Are you seeing things again?” he asked jokingly.
    “No, I’m serious! I think I just saw some type of aircraft directly above our position at about twenty-five thousand feet.”
    At the mention of the possibility of an aircraft, Klausmann came over to Freling’s position and looked skyward to where Freling was pointing out where he had last seen the object in the sky.
    After looking for almost a minute, Klausmann finally said, “Johann, have you been hitting the