You may notice something familiar about this post. That's because the second half of it is the fiction battle from last week. Well, I liked it so much that I decided to make it canon.
The white panther stalked through the woods. It had tracked its’ prey for nearly an hour now, waiting for it to split from the herd. It moved stealthily closer to the waterhole. The young deer finally moved, leaving its’ mother behind. The white panther made no move. It waited patiently while the deer manoeuvred through the difficult terrain. It was barely ten yards away. The white panther tensed, ready to pounce. Five yards.
Just as the white panther made its’ move, three arrows thudded into the side of its’ head. It crashed into the young deer, snapping the small creature in two with the force. The nearby herd of deer heard the crash and bolted.
Yilinan landed next to her kills without making a sound. The two other members of her hunting claw landed next to her. They were Wood Nymphs, the elite of her clan. Yilinan was the daughter of Lielae, the Lady of the clan. All three Nymphs had bright green skin and dark green hair. Brown pigment had been painted onto their bodies in complex clan patterns. They wore no clothes or shoes, except for the pouches slung over their shoulders and belts around their waists, which held their hunting equipment.
Yilinan instructed her two claw members to ready the kills for transport back to their clan. As they busied themselves with their tasks, Yilinan kept her ears pricked and her eyes keen. They did not wish to share the same fate as the white panther. Just as Rhihali had finished wrapping the deer, Yilinan heard a great crashing sound. All three readied their bows and jumped into the trees silently, leaving the half-wrapped white panther where behind.
All three Nymphs exchanged nervous glances as the crashing sound came steadily closer. For fully twenty-two minutes the three Nymphs didn’t move even in the slightest, even their breathing was synchronised to the gentle rustling of the leaves. Not that they needed to, the crashing sound drowned out everything else.
Suddenly the crashing sound stopped. The three Nymphs glanced at each other, confused. They listened intently but could not hear anything coming from the direction the noise had come from. There was no audible sign that there had ever been a sound. Still, the three wouldn’t risk moving closer until they new what they were dealing with.
Endra slowly placed her hand against the trunk of the tree she was hiding in. Once her palm was flat against the bark, she closed her eyes and concentrated. She became one with the tree. From there, she sent her mind along the roots until she came in contact with another tree, into which she transferred. She continued in this manner until she had reached the location of the noise. Her mind raced up the nearest tree trunk and she looked out.
She did not recognise what she saw, it was like a man, but as shiny as an arrow-head. Before she could take it all in, the thing turned its’ head toward the tree that currently housed her mind and punched., breaking the tree in half.
Endra’s body let out a brief scream before collapsing to the ground. Both Yilinan and Rhihali jumped out of their respective trees and began running. Behind them, the crashing sound started back up. However, by the time the thing had reached Endra’s lifeless body, they had long since vanished, leaving no trace of their passing.
Theodora Tonks was sitting inside the library once more, buried among a pile of books. Without warning a knife appeared at her throat, poised to deliver a killing blow. Before it struck home, however, it became a sardine.
“Since when could you do that?” Geri asked, dropping the sardine.
“Since I began studying transmogrification.”
“You do realise that everyone else from your class is busy celebrating their graduation right now, don’t you?” Geri cocked an eyebrow. Normally her eyebrows and eyes were hidden from sight by night-vision goggles and a bandana, but her parents had made her ‘dress nicely’ today. Instead she wore her goggles around her neck.
“Bleh. I’ve never been one for parties. You remember my fiftieth?”
“No. I remember our entire family waiting around a table with a massive cake proclaiming ‘Happy Fiftieth’ on it, but I don’t remember a party.” Geri pushed some books aside and sat on the table.
“Exactly.”
“I found you in this exact seat. The exact same seat you’ve been using for over thirty years.”
“It’s a comfy seat.”
Geri sighed, “You know, one day you’re going to wake up and realise that you’ve become a 560 year-old spinster with a house full of books and no friends.”
“I will also be the most powerful mage in history,” Theodora curtly replied, “And if you don’t mind I’ve got some practising to do before I receive my first assignment.”
“Pfeh. You’ll probably be cleaning up garbage from the duct works. That’s all Manipulators are good for.” Geri bounced away from the table and ran back to the party outside. Theodora picked up the sardine from the table and used her magic to place it gently in the rubbish bin.
“At least it’ll give me time to study.”
In a field on a world far, far beyond the reaches of imagination as men know it, a small butterfly landed on a flower. It made its’ way past the jagged thorns and towards the delicate circle of red petals. As it approached the flower twitched and snapped shut, enclosing the butterfly completely.
As the flower began to excrete powerful acids, the butterfly laid its’ eggs and peacefully died, secreting a paralyzing toxin that would prevent the flower from opening until the caterpillars had hatched. All across the field this was being repeated as an entire flock of butterflies descended upon the unfortunate flowers.
In the middle of the field a huge explosion occurred, despite the lack of anything to explode. As the smoke dispersed a small child of roughly nine human years coughed. His crimson-trimmed silver robes stood out starkly against the green of the field. A few more coughs, then the child clambered to his feet.
“Note to self: Never listen when Raziel suggests combining time and teleportation magic. You will not, as he suggested, summon ‘Miss December’ from the calendar he found, but will instead transport yourself to a field of thorny plants.” Jack pulled the head of one of the flowers from his rump, wincing as he did so.
After taking in the landscape, Jack checked the jumping crystal he had used. He had carved a time displacement rune into it, but was now regretting that decision. The crystal glowed with a dull light.
“Well, at least there’s a strong magical field on this world, so it shouldn’t take long to recharge and go home. So all I have to do is find a way to kill time,” Jack glanced around the field once more, “Should’ve brought a camera.”
For a few minutes Jack sat and watched the butterflies getting eaten, but found himself bored. He walked over to the nearby woods where he sat down with his back to a tree and began to read a book.
He hadn’t gotten past the first page when the tree next to his exploded in a shower of splinters. Jack instinctively used his body to protect the book. When he dared to turn around he saw two massive monsters duking it out barely more than ten yards away. The first creature, which had thick splinters embedded across its’ back, was a mix of a gorilla and a wolf. It reached more than ten feet in height, but was crouched over, walking partially on its’ huge fists. It had a sword larger than most men sticking out of one shoulder.
Hanging from the handle of that sword was a humanoid. It too was larger than most men and more muscle-bound than any Jack had ever met. It’s crimson skin shined with gore, presumably from the creature it was fighting. With seemingly impossible dexterity it placed its’ feet against the raging creature and pulled its’ sword free. After a backwards somersault it landed in a crouched position. With its’ free hand it pushed its’ dreadlocks out of its’ face, revealing a white mask with red patterns.
The larger, wolf/gorilla lunged, but the red man spun quickly, slicing through the large creatures’ wrist and removing its’ hand. It was obvious that the battle had gone on for a long time.
The creature roared in pain, but was quietened when the red man plunged his sword into its’ face. With one hand he withdrew it and let the creature slump to the ground. Then he turned his attention to Jack.
“Fing! Fing gar rhuk creng!” He yelled. Jack had no clue what language he was speaking in, let alone what he was saying. Jack just shook his head and gave a theatrically large shrug. The red man charged.
Jack barely had enough time to choose a spell before the red man had closed the gap. He leapt to the side, barely dodging the swing from the huge sword. The tree he had been standing in front of was cleanly sliced in two. With trained speed Jack scrawled a symbol in the air and passed his hand through it. A sheet of ice sprang up at the feet of the red man. The ice rose up in thick stalagmites, trapping the red man between them. Jack turned and fled.
Before he had even gotten ten strides away, Jack heard cracking from behind him. He turned to see that the red man was already free.
“What? That can’t be right?” Jack muttered to himself. As the red man swung his sword over his shoulder and began another charge Jack scrawled desperately in the air in front of him. Unlike the hasty ice spell he had used earlier, this symbol was intricately complex, requiring great sweeping motions and small but precise scribbles. The finished symbol hung in the air, a blazing white against the green grass.
By this time the red man had nearly reached him, so Jack didn’t have a chance to admire his artistic skills. He hastily slammed his palm against the symbol, unleashing its’ power upon his foe.
Between Jack and the red man a great gust of wind had sprung up. The red man slammed his sword sideways into the ground and hung on for all he was worth. The wind only got stronger, lifting him from his feet with such force that he was parallel to the ground. Nevertheless, he didn’t let go of his sword, holding on with incredible strength. It was clear to Jack that his spell would run out of power long before his foe tired, so he tried a different strategy. He quickly drew another symbol on the ground, which glowed green. The ground holding the sword in place gave way. The red man was flung backwards by the wind, which had already begun to peter out. He still crashed into the forest with enough force to pulverise the first tree though.
Jack slumped to the ground. Despite using two spells at once, at a much higher power level than usual though, he didn’t feel as drained as he normally would have. He could feel the magic of this world coursing through him, strengthening him. Making his magic more powerful than ever.
A thought suddenly occurred to him. He reached inside his pocket once more and withdrew the crystal. It was shining as brightly as the day it was first charged. Now he could go home.
Before he did though, he heard a splintering sound from the direction the red man had landed. Jack stood up and watched as his foe flexed his shoulder muscles, a grin on what was visible of his face beneath the mask. He hefted his sword up and noticed something stuck to the end of it. He reached up and removed the offending item.
It was the book Jack had just begun to read.
The red man deftly sniffed it. Then, to Jack’s amazement, he took a bite out of it. After some thoughtful chewing the red man spit it back out and sneered loudly. He threw the remainder of the book into the air and chopped it in half with his sword. He then looked straight at Jack’s face. If he had been capable of fear, he would have been petrified by the expression of sheer anger emanating from Jack’s features.
“Oh buddy, you’re in for it now!” Jack said. Feeling the magic surge through him, he began drawing a symbol in the air in front of him.
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