McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Writers round table
Kristine:
--- Quote ---It was an interesting experience, I knew the importance of what just happened, but my emotions just couldn't seem to register it to form any kind of an emotion around it. "It seems," he said in a deep voice, "That I am not."
--- End quote ---
Debbie turned to look at me and then back to the giant in front of us. At that point she chose her words carfully, "Joey has power but no knowlege or practice in using it."
Humbert smiled crookedly, "He can't get practice without using it."
Debbie looked over at me for support, like I would help her tell them I was an idiot. I shrugged, "I'm willing to try." I said, and she looked like she wanted to slap me, so I continued looking at our new friends, "but I could use some help."
Qualapec:
--- Quote ---Debbie looked over at me for support, like I would help her tell them I was an idiot. I shrugged, "I'm willing to try." I said, and she looked like she wanted to slap me, so I continued looking at our new friends, "but I could use some help."
--- End quote ---
Humbert laughed and whacked a huge hand on my shoulder, "It takes real man to admit weakness." Aside from the fact that his hand rattled my rib cage I was somewhat reassured. He turned to Debbie, "All right, I cannot say I will save your father. But I will teach you both how to save him."
Debbie released a great deal of tension, so much so that she looked like she was about to start crying from relief, "T-Thank you."
I blinked, "Um. Are we forgetting the fact that we only have a few hours before they-" I was about to say something along the lines of 'dangle him like an ornament from the gallows' but I bit it off almost immediatly. I was willing to bet that it would only make Debbie start crying again. See, I can think before I talk. Instead I said, "send Andre to hell."
What? Did you honestly expect me to be able to control my inner cynic twice?
But on the bright side she didn't start crying, she just glared daggers at me.
Humbert looked at me and sighed, "Young man, insisting eternal damnation of a woman's father is not best way to make her like you."
My cheek twitched in ammusement, but stopped when I realized he was serious. I quickly changed the subject, "So, what kind of training do we need?"
Humbert shook his large head, "I will train you. My highest mage will train Debyone." He waved a massive hand toward a place where nothing stood.
There was a shimmer of light, and a dwarf that was MUCH older than any of the others. He had a long white beard and eyebrows so thick I was amazed he could see through them. "I heard your call, Great Sage." he looked Debbie over, "I feel I can work with her."
Humbert nodded, "Very well then. We should begin."
I wasn't ready for one of his massive hands to come flying towards my face.
GWiz:
--- Quote from: Qualapec on March 23, 2008, 06:19:05 AM ---I wasn't ready for one of his massive hands to come flying towards my face.
--- End quote ---
Even more shocking was the fact that his blow did not land. The air seemed to shimmer for a moment, then suddenly I was looking at Humbert’s back. As I watched, his body contorted impossibly and suddenly there was a huge mace in his hand, conjured out of nowhere and whistling towards my skull. Without thinking, I drew the Wildflower and parried the strike. Instead of the expected clang of metal on metal, I heard a sound like a million stringed instruments striking a discordant note. It unnerved me enough that I almost missed Humbert’s back stroke, barely raising the Wildflower in time to save my ribs from what surely would have been a crushing blow. Again and again he swung. I blocked all the blows until I started thinking about a counter-attack, and then a bruising down stroke struck a glancing blow to my shoulder. I fell heavily and rolled as the mace crushed the ground where my head had just been, raising the blazing Wildflower in front of me to ward off the next attack.
Which never came. “You did well until now,” rumbled Humbert. “But you made a mistake. Do you know what it was you did wrong?”
I slowly relaxed my guard and stared at the behemoth before shrugging my shoulders. “I don’t even know how I got this far.”
“The Wildflower is a part of you, and you are a part of the Wildflower. Do not think about your next move. The Wildflower uses you as you use it. You falter when you try to bend it to your will, as it fails when harmony fails.”
He lashed out with a vicious swipe that would have removed my kneecaps, but impossibly, the Wildflower sang in answer, blocking the blow. Humbert laughed gloriously. “AHA! He listens well!”
I would’ve thought that riotously funny any other time, but the mace was speeding towards my face, so I stopped thinking about anything and let the Wildflower work it’s magic. Just when I was starting to feel pretty damn good about not getting smacked, Humbert’s mace attack stopped and he thundered a command as he held the mace in front of him. An unseen force blasted into my chest and flung me to the ground several yards away.
“You’ve seen how the Wildflower protects you,” he shouted. “Now it’s time for you to use your magic to protect the Wildflower.” Humbert advanced slowly with the mace held stiffly out in front of him. I could see blue energy crackling up and down its length. Magic? What magic? I had no idea what I was gonna do.
meg_evonne:
Debbie saw the Humbert's swift change to mace bearing attacker and yanked out her sword just in time to parry the old mage's that winked into existance at the same time. Assuming that Joey would hold his own somehow, she concentrated on her own "tutor". Debbie had a lot more experience than Joey. She'd played with small throwing knifes at the age of four and moved on to full swords by the time she ten. The mage continued the forward attack and Debbie fell backwards towards the line of trees, easily avoiding the frontal attacks. As she reached the tree line she shifted to offense but the mage matched her skill without giving ground. Debbie slipped back to defensive and drew the mage closer. The speed of his attacks continued to increase in tiny incriments, as if testing her ability. She still was breathing easily and under little stress, but she wasn't gaining ground, nor speed...managing to stay even with the mage's pace of attack.
The mage shifted tactics and took a broad stroke two feet horizontal to the ground. If it had made contact it would have cut Debbie's legs off at the knees. She let the stroke follow through, nimbly leaping up, pulling her legs easily out of the way. Then attacked from the height of her leap with a 45 degree sweep of her own on her way down, landing with her back against one of the trees. The mage side stepped and attacked straight on. Debbie faded through and past the tree and the mages sword removed a chunk of wood from the huge trunk, sending it flying. Debbie attacked from behind the tree but the mage quickly cornered the tree and attacked with another horizontal low strike. Debbie lofted again, this time landing and balancing about three feet up on one of the tree branches. The shift in position was a surprise and she giggled at the shift in height. The Mage smiled and nodded approval before leaping upwards himself with another horizontal stroke. Debbie lept up to the next branch and their battle shifted from one level to several. The attacks shorter as the branches of the trees now impeded their range of motion.
Debbie and the mage danced like small birds, ever increasing in height above the ground. Debbie was winded now but still delighted with this new direction of attack and retreat. Near the top of the tree, Debbie made a loud excited yell and leaped outwards almost 45 feet up from the ground, the mage following behind her. Debbie bobbled slightly in the air and the mage held off his attack while she adapted herself to her new position. Her face was thrilled as she teetered in space without falling.
Slowly she started to spin, still suspended until she was like a small tornado and suddenly out of the pillar came her sword, flashing as it spun rapidly attacking. The mage re-engaged her attack with a whoop of excitement. From below two of the azure eyed green men grabbed up their swords and took to the air. Soon Debbie was surrounded, easily fending off the attacks. As she managed to knock green men down, they fell without injury to the ground and other's quickly replaced them and then added to the number engaged in fighting her.
Having found her wings, Debbie grew bored with the spinning and with a cry of excitement lowered her sword and sent her body upwards another 50 feet. Only the mage followed. She parried the attack with ease and turned head downwards in a sharp dive. The mage remained where he was until she pulled herself up sharply just before landing. He pulled the sword's hilt to his lips and smiling saluted her. The green men surrounded her, congratulating her on her new found skill.
Edited: let's see one may teeter totter, but one probably should not be teeted--- changed to teetered :-)
Kristine:
Good fight scene meg but we shifted from first person to third person POV. Now I know that's not allowed if you were writing this by yourself but I'm willing to go with the flow and flip back and forth if people want...
--- Quote from: GWiz on March 23, 2008, 11:02:04 PM --- “You’ve seen how the Wildflower protects you,” he shouted. “Now it’s time for you to use your magic to protect the Wildflower.” Humbert advanced slowly with the mace held stiffly out in front of him. I could see blue energy crackling up and down its length. Magic? What magic? I had no idea what I was gonna do.
--- End quote ---
"I don't have any magic" I said throwing my hands out in front of me, my voice rising in panic.
Humbert laughed without slowing his attack, "Of course you don't - your from Earth. The wildflower doesn't have a human body to use a sword either..."
The blue electrical looking magic shot out and I felt it shoot up my right arm.
Several things happened at once then. My arm went numb with pain and I dropped the wildflower as my arm spasmed with the shock. At the same time I felt the wildflower distantly in my perception as I did that morning with the king. I knew it was there and could sense the blue electric as it hit my nerves, and I could sense the power of the Wildflower. For an extended micro second, time froze and I was stunned at the artifacts conection with all the kinds of energy around me, as far and intense as I could percieve and further. For that moment it was like stepping from a clausterphobic cave into a windswept hillside overlooking trees, sky, and ocean. I had a sense of things that that were too small to see and the intricate systems of conections in the world around me that would have been too vast to percieve without the magic.
But the power itself wasn't mine.
I was the empty jar waiting to be filled. Or in this case the empty wire conected to the resister waiting to ground the energy.
Time started again and seemed to make up for the pause, as I was quickly hit in the left leg and right shoulder with bolts of energy - each one more powerful than the last. I stumbled back on instinct but reached for the sword on the ground and pictured the light saber in my mind flying into Luke Skywalkers hand.
The Wildflower came to me and flared into the light saber I had first seen it as, and with a nausiating shift in perception I felt for, and then pulled at the power of the ground under my feet. I felt it moving through me in a miriad of perceptions; the ground power here had a musky taste, a smell like fresh turned dirt, and a thick, mossy green-brown color. It overwhelmed my senses for a moment as I saw it flow out of me in a green wave that caught and disapated the blue lightning coming from my fairytale sparring partner.
Humbert stopped calling the power that seemed to be coming from inside him, and I almost fell over with the sudden cesation of resistance. Once the power was not in conflict with anything it turned a glossy soap bubble rainbow shield for a moment then faded. The Wildflower stayed a light saber for a few more minutes before shimering back into the sword it was when resting. For an instant I thought it felt amusement at my bewilderment but then the conection was gone and I felt oddly empty again.
"It is your magic. All you need to do is call it." Humbert rumbled.
It came to me in a flash that no one with there own inner magic could truly understand what it was I was doing. They could see me calling the powers but that they were not filtered through me - they were the raw power bent to my will, imagination or feelings. I blinked then sat down suddenly very tired.
I was distantly aware of a small tornado close by and Debbie fighting a group of the dwarves, then she landed and got a small ovation. I would have joined in but I felt oddly out of touch with things at this moment.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version