Tristan's Tale Pt. 04

She shook her head and laughed. "It was the happiest day of my life. I almost started to believe in the Lord once more."

"My heart sank when I realized I was going to be sent back. But, with the powers I had, I was able to keep entirely to myself, causing my husband to forget my existence completely, until I was brought back here."

"It's plagued me ever since," she said. "I was never able to open up, never truly able to honestly bring myself to anyone here. And always, everyone having sex! I longed for the touch of another, but I'd swore to myself to never allow myself to be tarnished again."

"I have been here quite some time, Tristan. Would you believe that I had not so much as kissed anyone here as of a week ago?"

Jesus. "So when you came out of it and realized what Derrik had done to you..."

She nodded, and stared me in the eye. "I was going to kill him, Tristan. There was no doubt in my mind that he was going to die." I shivered. Note to self...

She shrugged. "I have forgiven him now. He is a weak man, to the core. The one time he worked up the courage to actually try and take me, he couldn't even become hard."

Holy shit. Alice's petty revenge had literally saved Jade from being taken advantage of. "You can thank Alice for that one," I said, and explained the story.

"There may be a Lord above after all," she muttered after I had finished. "Or maybe I was given the grace of good timing. Either way I will have to thank Alice for what she did, even if she did not know the full extent of its effects."

"Thank you for sharing your story with me," I said. "I don't envy your position. Having been made to get over it must have been like hell."

"Worse," she said with a smile. "But sometimes, hell is worth passing through, just for the trinkets you can bring back with you."

"Trinkets like forgiveness, and being empowered to allow yourself to connect to others?"

"Something like that," she said.

We were coming up to the glade, and Jade's jaw dropped when she saw the color of the trees.

"They're beautiful," she marveled. "Just like how Kiara described."

"Kiara?" I asked.

"She taught me how to carve wood - that sphere I gave you." She looked at me, tilting her head curiously. "Do you still have it?"

I smiled. "Maybe." I fished it out of my pocket and she blushed when I showed her.

"It's how I knew you were out," I said. "I, uh, sort of didn't stop thinking about you for three days. Wasn't sure if I'd somehow condemned you to death, or something like that."

She giggled. "You're sweet." She looked up into my eyes warmly - something was different about her. She really had dropped something - like she was somehow more melted than before. I felt bubbly just looking at her smile.

We could have kissed, then. That would have probably been appropriate - there, in the sun, next to the beautiful trees. But it didn't happen - we just looked at each other for a moment. We both felt the tug - I think we saw it in each other. But it wasn't time - and there was plenty of that now.

"So, the stone giants live in here?" she asked.

We moved closer to the glade. "Yeah - it's pretty extraordinary, actually." Jade moved up to the outskirts of the trees, and put a hand to the wood. "Mmm..." she murmured. "I don't think I've felt a live tree in many, many months."

That was a thought. For how cool Moleh was, it did have a pretty urban feel to it. Everywhere around it was grasslands, too. Something caught my eye about the wood - I checked it out.

The gashes I had noticed last time were still there, but there were new ones. Fresh ones, still dripping saps of different colors.

And then we heard the screeching. Raucous and almost metallic, they sounded from within the glade.

I looked at Jade, wild eyed. "Tell me you heard that."

She returned my gaze with the same fear. She bit her lip with worry. "Are you saying that's not normal?"

"No, nothing like that happened last time. And these..." I stroked the scars on the trees. "These are fresh."

"What do we do?" asked Jade. "Do we run and get help?"

"Help?" I asked. "From who, the Odieh? They don't care about this place, only Jasper does, and he-"

"Who is Jasper?" she asked.

"Ah, fuck it," I said, looking through the trees. Then, I looked back at Jade, a wild grin spread across my face.

"Shall we?" I asked.

"You're not serious," she said slowly. "Toward the sounds? I thought you to be a fool for facing Derrik by yourself, but this, this is truly, truly wait, Tristan, stop-"

I was walking into the forest already. "You coming?" I asked.

She cursed. "If we die, I will find you in the afterlife and peel the skin off your body. Slowly."

"If we die, I'll be glad I met you before it all ended," I replied.

She shut up for a second until she caught up to me. "Really?" she asked softly. "Do you mean that?"

I stopped, and turned to look her straight in the eyes. "Yes. I do."

Her face was a mixture of surprise and joy and a little bit of fear. "Oh," she said, and with that, we moved toward the screeching. It grew louder as we went deeper into the woods, closer to the oasis in the middle.

I reflected on my options. I had Jade with me - that was definitely an asset, especially since her necklace was off. But what I really needed right now was a way to fight, and that was something I was sorely lacking. I needed to be able to defend myself.

I needed my Chi.

I cursed my stupidity, for not listening to it - or, rather, to me. I should have known better, hell, if I'd been the one threatening to leave, I would have meant it.

We came to the edge of the clearing. I put an arm behind me to keep Jade from getting too close.

She batted it away and stepped up next to me. "You forget that I am five times the fighter you are,' she said, the beige knife materializing in her hand. The surface of the blade was smooth, but textured in a way as if the material had been poured over itself such that small folds were visible along the blade. What I could see of the handle was a sandy colored wood flecked with the iridescence of abalone.

"I like it when you talk all badass like that," I said, grinning despite the rancor from inside the oasis. We were each up against a tree near the outer edge - she flashed a smile at me and pushed her hair back.

"Now is not the time for this," she said, but her smile said otherwise. Slowly, we craned our necks out from the trees.

Where before the scene had been dominated by the giants standing upright and moving, they were now huddled on the ground, appearing as if regular rocks with no sign of life and no recognizable lifelike anatomy.

Fear shot through my spine when I saw why: large winged creatures were swooping down to them, screeching a horrible sound that made my blood curdle. I couldn't get a good look at the creatures but it appeared as if they were attacking the rocks - raking them with large talons as they passed by.

A few of the huge birds were ripping apart the tree-harps, tearing the central branches off from the trunk and ripping the smaller ones out altogether. They tossed the wood into a pile - strangely, for short distances across the ground, they walked instead of flew, an ungainly, lopsided movement which allowed them to carry the sticks both in their beaks and in their talons. I counted five in total.

One of them flew just in front of us and I got a better look - the thing was huge, at least a foot taller than me and with huge black wings. Its face was made of metal. Or at least appeared to be - there was some sort of brass mask on it with slits for the eyes and mouth. Its claws were of the same material, glinting in the sun as it flew by. That explained the gashes in the wood - but, more concerning was how they could affect the giants. The claws were huge, metal (at least in appearance), and deadly sharp.

Its body was a mixture of a rough, leathery fur and more metal. Where the mask was brass colored, the chest plates were a burnished black. It was hard to take in how fused together the metal was to the skin, appearing at once natural and added on to protect vulnerable spots.

"I think I would like to leave now," said Jade, sounding like she was trying to be more calm than she actually felt.

I took one look at her, and then, smiling like the fool I was, I took off into the glade toward the rock giants.

"Tristan!" she exclaimed in a half-whisper. "Have you lost your mind?"

"Probably," I called back over my shoulder - Jade was stuck, half willing to follow me, while the other half of her that wasn't completely insane kept her put.

I don't know why I went for it, really. Of course, I have ideas and such, ideals of heroism and nobility, wanting to impress the girl or wanting to save the rock giants I'd come to have some affection for...

But when it comes down to it, in the split second of deciding to run toward my potential death, it wasn't a rational process. It was more like falling toward inevitability, as if carried onward by the seductive thrills of adventure.

One of the bird creatures was standing next to one of the larger rock piles, screeching at the gray and tearing into the stone savagely with its claws. I went for this one - the others were occupied with tearing down trees, stripping the upper branches high above, and piling them into a few multicolored bundles near the pond.

"Let's go Tristan, don't fuck it up now," I murmured to myself as my feet slapped against the ground. I needed a weapon or my death was as sure as the earth beneath me.

I put all my attention on my Chi, bringing all my fear and my resolve and my commitment to defending the stone giants into one focused attempt to connect to it. I wasn't in the Chi room so I didn't have the advantage of Shae's experience helping me, but, shit, I wasn't going to let that stop me. I'd found it already, I just needed it to come back.

"Oh, so now you want me to come out and play," said a voice in my head.

I didn't have time to wonder if I was going crazy - I'd thought the words, but at the same time, it hadn't been me thinking them. There was some sort of schism there that I was reluctant to look at.

"We need to save the stone giants," I thought to myself. "And potentially save ourselves."

"Yeah, you're a real dumbass for this one," came the thought reply. "I swear I only came back because we're going to die otherwise."

"Spare me," I replied in my mind. "Come out. Now."

"On one condition," came the reply.

I don't know how it noticed me amidst all the screeching, but the bird I was running toward spun around and stared me down. I shivered - there was something so un-lifelike about the mask. It screeched horribly at me and dropped low to the ground, scurrying quickly toward me on all fours.

"Condition?!" I exclaimed in my mind so hard I practically shouted out loud.

"Nothing crazy or anything." The creature was speeding toward me and I wasn't about to slow down - it would hunt me down in the blink of an eye. I'd cast my lot, and I had to stick with it.

"Yes, fine, whatever you want!" I thought. We were cutting it close as the thing got closer to me, and our inevitable collision looked more and more like it would spell the end for me.

"I get to choose how I come out," said my Chi.

I couldn't believe I was delaying saving my ass over the fucking aesthetic of the dagger I'd get. "Fine! Just hurry, we don-"

The creature sprang up into the air with catlike grace - I'd thought I had at least a few more seconds, but it had been saving energy, and, airborne, shot toward my throat with its razor-sharp claws outstretched, the screech cutting me through to the bone.

"Fuck yeah," thought my Chi.

In an instant, a rush of energy flooded through me, enlivening every cell of my body, as if I was made of electricity. The world grew brighter and slowed down to a crawl - everything was practically glowing. The sky, the trees around me, the birdlike creature only a few feet away from my throat, the mask menacing and eerily beautiful. There was all the time in the world to take it in. I was perfectly calm - the wind brushed past me like an old friend.

And with a sensation like a mixture of a snap and a breath of fresh air, my right hand, trailing behind me as I ran, was suddenly wrapped around the handle of my Chi. I even had the time for a small internal smile as I implicitly knew how it had manifested.

I stepped to the side - somehow I knew the exact distance I needed to move to get out of the way - and swung my Chi toward the creature's plate-armored back.

The sun glinted off the brilliant blue-green of the greatsword as it arced toward the bird. It was huge - clearly too big to hold in one hand - and yet, it was as if it didn't weigh anything. The blade was translucent, as if made of glass, but the blade's material was fluid, moving within the confines of the blade's shape. And it was sharp - I swear I was cutting the air in half as it swung down. I could feel the wind parting on either side of my Chi.

The blade ended in a simple dark gray guard. My hand clutched the grip, which was wrapped in a black cloth, and below, the pommel was the size of a large marble, black around the edge encircling an ember-orange gem.

Inwardly, I rolled my eyes as the sword crashed into the creature, sending it to the ground. I allowed time to speed up again - don't ask me how - and the creature followed through on its roll, tumbling for a fair distance until it stopped, twitching on the ground, where it squawked angrily but without breath. I hadn't cut through the metal, though I had left a serious dent. The tumble, however, had broken its wings, its left leg was bruised in three places, it break snapped at the tip, three claws on its right hand were broken, two on the left were chipped, and it was about to call for help.

All of that entered my awareness in about a tenth of a second. I just knew. And I knew what I was going to do about it - in fact, I was calmly walking toward it, the flat of my Chi resting on my shoulder. The surface of the blade was moving like water within the form of the blade. On the one hand it was solid, never changing shape, but the contents swirled in a smooth array of subtle variations on the blue-green.

The creature snarled at me as I approached, and then barked out - a sound similar to the yip of a hyena. The rest of the screeches in the glade ceased, and I knew that all the creatures were looking at me. I had their full attention.

Wonderful.

I leveled the point of the sword at the fallen creature. The slits revealed black eyes behind the mask. The creature was afraid, that much was obvious from how it cowered before me. But there was something more in the eyes - partially concealed, I wasn't totally sure, but there was a malice behind them that struck me as more developed than I would have thought possible for a bird.

The three other creatures stopped what they were doing and flew toward me. They circled above me for a few moments before landing, circling around me. I kept with their rotation, never leaving my back completely exposed, and never taking my attention off the one on the ground.

"Now that I have your attention, I'd like to invite you all to please get the fuck out of here," I said evenly. Hey - I almost sounded like Jet! I kept the sword pointed at the neck of the creature. It tried to move, and I followed it with the blade. I pressed the tip against its throat, feeling the skin - it was tough, but I could pierce it in a heartbeat if I wanted. Its life was mine.

The birds flicked glances toward each other but made no attempt to leave. I gave them my best glower, which, in my current state, was as intimidating as I'd ever been - they never held my gaze for longer than a second. I was the man I'd first seen in the Chi room, the confidence, the power, the resolve - it was all me.

And then I heard her scream.

Shit - I counted the creatures around me. Four. Four. There had been five in total.

I turned around, struggling to keep calm.

One of the winged creatures was standing tall on its hind legs ten feet behind me. It had Jade captured in its wings, which covered all but her head. A menacing claw was pressed threateningly against her throat. Jade's hair was a mess - there was no way she'd gotten caught without a fight.

The creatures around me snickered animalistically. Suddenly, the circle they were pacing was my cage, and the beginnings of worry were sown in my chest.

I had underestimated them. They were intelligent - far more than I'd assumed from their behavior. "So, what do you propose we do?" I asked them calmly, tossing out the worry. It wasn't helpful, so it was gone.

They squawked rapidly to each other in short bursts, the brass masks of their faces looking at each other.

"Tristan, listen closely," said Jade, partially muffled from within the black wings. "I am going to make them think I have disappeared. This is your opening. Understand?"

The creature below my blade made an attempt to move, and this time, I flicked my sword across its throat. A shallow cut - a warning. It froze, and didn't try anything else.

The three circling around me started to close their circle. They were doing it slowly over time - slow enough that I might not have noticed if my senses weren't so heightened. But I knew their games.

I nodded slightly. "I'm ready."

"I would also like to inform you that this is the worst date I have ever been on," she said with a mixture of her usual imperiousness and charm.

I smiled slightly. "It's not over yet." The circling around me sped up. I could sense their anticipation, how ready they were to pounce. The one at the tip of my sword wasn't even worried. Don't ask me how I knew - it wasn't as if I was reading their faces. Something about their bodies, how they moved. It was just obvious, like reading a kid's book. "Time's up, Jade," I advised.

I felt a vague sense of heat come from her direction, a shift of energy of some kind. It was extremely subtle, but there nonetheless. Her captor screeched in alarm, spreading its wings in confusion as it stared directly at her. She slipped away from it, walking calmly, but briskly, toward the edge of the trees.

The three snapped their heads toward the one which had just been holding her. I sighed inwardly as time slowed to a crawl again - I had just made a decision I'd wanted to avoid.

I took a large step toward the creature closest to me, and closed my eyes as my Chi sliced through the air.

There was no resistance as the watery blade sliced through the creature's neck. I heard the thud, as the head fell, strangely metallic as the mask struck a rock, and my stomach threatened to turn on me. The body fell too, and once again I pushed down my revulsion. Later, I told myself. We weren't out of it yet.

I opened my eyes - the others were just finishing processing the death.

One of them lunged at me, carried forth by its wings. I stepped to the side to avoid it, beginning to strike with my Chi, but it had anticipated my dodge, and used its wings to adjust mid flight - a claw raked my arm, peeling away the skin. I assessed the wound immediately - not too deep. I wouldn't die from blood loss if I could end this quickly.

The creature ended its pounce and turned to face me, adjacent to its friend. The injured one stayed on the ground, screeching incoherently. The two mobile ones stared me down from ten feet away, pacing back and forth.

I wasn't stupid. The third one still up had snuck behind me - I'd heard its talons ripping the ground as it walked. I'd already gauged where it would be and, in a blur, spun around slicing through the air with my Chi.

The tip of the blade cut across the mask of the prowling creature, and it paused in surprise.

That was all I needed. I cut back, feather-light through the air, but deadly -- the blade sunk into the creature's collar and it screeched, recoiling from me. Black blood oozed out from the wound. It was scared, for now.