2014 writing challenge - week six

[baronessekat]

I fell onto my back, landing with an audible “oof”. I brought my sword up so the blade ran the length of me from head to pelvis as a feeble attempt at protection. It was a good thing I did because, no sooner had I gotten it in place, when I felt his sword crash onto mine.

“Again,” I heard him say.

Coughing, in a vain attempt to get my lungs to work again, I struggled to my feet. But just before I was in stance, I felt the wind shift from behind me and I drove to the ground again, but this time in a controlled somersault. I came up into a crouched position and brought my sword up, just in time to feel his blade connect with mine.

“Better.” His voice was void of emotion, but somehow I could sense he was offering a small smile in my direction. I felt a bit of pride swell in me at that one word, but I did not let it relax my guard.

Closing my eyes I listened for even the barest hint of his location and his next move. He was around here somewhere. But the exercise was to protect myself and fight him, even though he had cloaked himself with invisibility. I turned to the faint sound of a scuff on the floor and listened harder. A change in the air, a whiff of Sandalwood and Cinnamon and suddenly my feet were swept out from under me and once again I was flat on my back. I quickly rolled to my right and felt the flat of his blade catch my left shoulder. That was going to leave a bruise.

I heard the sound of exasperation before he spoke. “Again!”

Crawling to my feet, I muttered a curse under my breath – nothing blasphemous or violating the Third Commandment; I learned that lesson very early on. As I returned to guard, I scanned the room. “This would be a lot easier if I could see you.”

Was that a snort of derision that I heard? “Easier maybe, but do you really think the enemy is going to wait for you to get settled? Is it going to stand there in broad daylight screaming ‘here I am, come get me’? I do NOT think so. You need to learn to overcome your human limitations.”

There had to be something I could do besides just waiting for him to knock me flat on my ass again. I hated playing the waiting game and he knew it. I closed my eyes again and strained my senses, trying to locate him. Then I remembered, just the day before, Raphael placing his hand on forehead and feeling the warmth flow through me and a new awareness surrounding me.

Very carefully I pictured my Third Eye opening and whispered the word “Vidi”. Suddenly the room sprang into a sharpness that wasn’t there before. And there he stood, blazing so bright I could barely see – flowing golden hair, Ancient Roman style military uniform with pleated skirt, sandals and shiny metal breastplate, gladius in his right hand. Even now, three years after first coming to study under him, I was flat out impressed by the wings.

Michael smiled down at me. “I was wondering when you would think of that.”

I shrugged. “Yeah, well, we both know I’m not the quickest on the uptake.” This time he did smile. He also lunged at the same time. But since I could now see him, I was able to parry his strike and offer a repost of my own.

“Well,” he said as he countered my attack, “now that you have figured out how to see me, shall we get down to the real work?”

I groaned and attacked again. Yep, this was going to hurt.

topic: invisible

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[emt-hawk.livejournal.com]

I hit the ground as the door popped open in front of me. My partner followed, dragging the inch-and-a half line into the thick black smoke. I pushed the door all the way open, and smoke rolled out, through the top half of the door. As it came out, it started to light up. Great.

We'd been told that the fire was in through the front door, and turn right, the wall with the fireplace would be on the wall facing us. I pushed him forward, and turned him right. I could see the doorway behind us, and I put the halligan down on the far side of the line, and lifted my leg over it. My left hand went down on the line, and the halligan slid into my right hand like it was going home.

We put our faces down and crawled along the floor, me using the halligan to make sure we were following the right wall, by poking at the wall with the fork end. Furniture would get in my way, and I'd push against it with my fist, wrapped around the tool.

We crawled about 10 feet into the room, when the air coming in through the opened door caught up with us, the smoke over head lighting up with a palpable pressure. It forced us down to the floor with the heat, heat I could almost feel through my gear. Thank god for nomex. My regulator rested on the floor while I waited for the initial flame-over to go past. It was close to a flash-over, but we were lucky. The whole room didn't catch at once. I'll have memories of the furniture, burned in my mind by the lighting of the flame-over.

But the pressure let up after a moment, and the room's lighting changed. It went from a ripple across the ceiling to a column at the far end of the room. It was our objective. My partner opened up with the nozzle, directing a straight stream at the base of the fire, quenching it, as he worked his way up the wall.

When done, we returned to the firehouse, cleaned and inspected our gear, and waited for the next alarm.

[baronessekat.livejournal.com]

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