Chapter 19
I elbowed my way through the crowd of ponies for a bit, then saw the futility it and lifted myself into the air and hovered over them instead. Even though I was taller and had longer legs than they did, all that meant was that I had a better chance of stepping on one of them. A few (few being a relative term when there were probably thousands if not more ponies crowding the halls) of them watched me enviously while others either watched in awe or did not notice me and were too preoccupied with what was on their mind or whom they were speaking to. I headed first for my room, intending to see if Trixie was alright and had made it to it. My room was indeed occupied when I arrived there, but not by anypony I knew. I apologized for intruding, grabbed my things, and then left the room again, this time dividing my attention half for levitating myself, and half for homing in on Trixie. I followed the tugs and eventually found myself outside the room that other Humans had stored ammunition in here in the palace. It was mostly Humans that surrounded that area, but once a certain distance from it was reached the crowd turned into a sea of various ponies again.
“Trixie!” I called, but my voice was lost in the racket of thousands of voices all trying to talk at once and be heard by their neighbors. I hovered in closer much to the surprise of my fellow race. “I'm looking for a girl with blue hair!” I yelled at the top of my lungs when I stopped in front of one of them. “Have you seen her?”
“Human or pony?” He yelled back. It sounded to me as if he had whispered it rather than yelled, but I supposed I must have sounded the same way.
“Human!” He nodded and pointed a thumb at the door behind them. “Thanks!”
“Good luck getting in, though. You're going to be waiting a long time!” I smiled secretively and then teleported from in front of him to inside the room, still in midair. It was somewhat quieter inside, but still very noisy, and my sudden appearance out of nowhere rewarded me with about twenty guns pointed at me. I quickly raised my hands, face nervous. When they saw I was neither feathery nor scaly they lowered their guns and resumed doing what they were doing before, which mostly seemed to be cleaning their guns. I looked around the room and spotted Trixie sitting on top of several crates that had several bits of paper taped to them that read 'empty'. She waved when she saw me and I floated over.
“Glad to see you made it! When we separated and you didn't come back I was worried that you might have been killed!”
“Aw!” I said, smiling. “You were worried about me! How sweet!” Now she frowned and punched me.
“Still making fun of me? I told you to stop that!”
“I'm only teasing, you Trix. No need to get mad. In truth I was worried about you too.”
She told me the various things that had happened since we parted, and I related my experiences when she finished. “I confess, I hadn't expected it to go so badly. I thought we were going to butcher them!” A soldier looked up from a folding table near us and commented that this is what normally happened when you went into combat without getting good intelligence on your enemy first.
“Our bigger weaponry was the most effective on our enemy, but that was something that we did not have a lot of, and once they were taken out or were used up the fight got harder, and then of course they torched or buried our extra ammo too. If not for that we'd probably still be fighting on the streets and those big bird-things would be dropping out of the sky like rain.”
“Instead we're stuck in here behind a magical force field packed like sardines in a can.” I sighed and rubbed my forehead. It had all gone so wrong. Granted, now that the soldiers had more ammunition again we very well could still win, but with so little space to maneuver or even to just stand setting up defenses again would be difficult.
“I'm going to go see if I can find my folks. I'll catch up again with you later, Trixie.”
“Uh no.” She said, latching a hand on one of my shoulders as I turned to leave. “The last time we separated I got stuck in here with a bunch of smelly Humans that wouldn't stop calling me 'kid'.”
“Um, Trixie? You're Human too, now, and you look like a kid.”
“But I'm not one! That's the point!” She said loudly, exasperated. “Look, just take me with you.” I shrugged and finished turning and backed up so she could hop on my back. When she did I was choking.
“Not so...tight on my...neck, Trixie!” I gasped out. She repositioned her arms so she'd be holding onto my shoulders instead and wrapped her legs around my middle. “That's better!” I approached the wall that I'd telelported through a few minutes ago and then did it again, this time with a passenger. Trixie's grip briefly tightened on me, but I did not comment on it and instead began homing in first on my mother.
I found her later outside on the wrap-around balcony staring out at the Griffons that had ceased attacking the barrier and now rested on the ground at the base of the mountain. I looked down at them for a moment, and then addressed her.
“Hey mom. Have you seen dad anywhere?” He was not with her. She whirled around and stared at me hovering slightly above her with Trixie on my shoulders first in shock, then in overjoyed relief.
“Oh thank heaven! You're alright! Come down here so I can give you a hug!” I descended to the floor and embraced my mother, Trixie leaning back to avoid the embrace. She stuck her tongue out and looked away with a 'bleh!' expression. When we released one another she asked who the little girl on my back was. I heard Trixie take a deep breath and got the feeling she was about to start raging, so I held her mouth shut with magic and quickly explained Trixie to her. Trixie bopped me on the head with a fist for 'muting' her shortly after I relented my magical gag.
“If you do that again I'm going to make your hair fall out!” She threatened, sounding cross.
“I think the young lady means business, Jake.” My mother said, looking serious, but sounding as if she were trying to hold back a laugh. “Can she really do that?”
“No idea.” I replied. “She has been using magic longer than me, so it's always possible.” I did not like that idea of walking around completely bald, to be honest, so I promised Trixie that I would not, then repeated my first question to mom. She nodded.
“He's here in the palace. I don't know where exactly, but he's here somewhere.” I thanked her and said I'd go look for him. She wished me good luck and asked me to call her when I found him, and then she rolled her eyes and said that she'd just remembered that Cell phones didn't work here. I chuckled and said then homed in on him.
I found my father in the kitchens, which were packed to the brim with ponies and people. He wasn't cooking like I'd expected to find him doing, though. Instead he was washing dishes and grumbling about it (which I had expected)
“I have hands instead of hooves and what do they have me doing? I'm washing dishes!” I heard him say as me and Trixie floated horizontally to him (the roof in the actual kitchen itself as opposed to the mess hall had been too low for us to float upright). It was likely that he had been muttering that line over and over for the past several hours. Both he and I had a tendency to do that when we were agitated about something. Fortunately there was more space around my father to stand than there had been around my mother and I landed next to him and Trixie got down as well.
“Care for an extra set of hands?” I asked. There were a crap-load of dirty dishes and utensils piled up next to the sink, and every other minute another few were added to the stack. It was so bad that a few of them were even being piled up on the floor next to the dish sink and rinse sink, which stood alone from the rest of the kitchen.
“Yeah.” He said. “Grab a towel and start drying. The towels are-” When he turned to point them out he saw me and dropped the bowl he'd been hiding back into the soapy murky water and stared for two seconds before his face became the same as my mothers' (though to a lesser degree because he was usually less emotional) and he embraced me as well, wet arms and all. My shirt soaked up the dishwater, but at the moment I didn't care and hugged back. Trixie picked up a towel, considered the mound of clean dishes, then shook her head and tossed the towel back on the pile she'd taken it from. “You're okay! I knew it!”
“As Trixie can tell you, dad, I'm very hard to kill. I'm glad you're okay too.”
“How goes it out there? I haven't heard any gunfire in awhile.” When my expression became solemn and his glad mood lessened too. I explained how at first it was going great, and then when things got bad, and then went to worse. When I finished he slowly shook his head.
“That's not fair.”
“No it isn't.” I agreed. “Now we're all stuck in here, or maybe under the ground somewhere. Of course, we've got ammo again, so if the Griffons ever get through we probably can take them out until they are forced to retreat, but it still won't be pretty.”
“I suppose that's what we get.” He said. I raised an eyebrow, and he explained. “It seems that every time Humanity becomes full of pride something happens to humble us. The Titanic was a prime example. When it was built its architects boasted that not even God himself could sink it, and we know how that ended. Then there's several wars in our history where the military boasted that with their strategies and tech we'd be done in a few months, if that, and then the wars would drag on for more than a year. Then came space exploration.” I nodded, recalling a few bad events. When I was still in middle school outer space was my favorite subject. “We became confident our in rocket-building skill to the point where we thought almost nothing could go wrong, and then the Challenger space shuttle exploded mid-flight. Now we're here, and thought that our superior weaponry was an assured victory.”
“It might have been, had we gotten more than just volunteers and had jets instead of helicopters!” A soldier grumbled while delivering more dishes to the sink to be washed. “Nothing in this world has any hope of catching even an outdated jet!”
“I know a certain cyan Pegasus who would argue against that statement, and prove you wrong, but I have to agree that if we'd have had more than what we'd been given that this would have been a cinch.” I said.
“Not that we can't still win,” The soldier continued. “but we'd have lost less people.”
I spoke with my father and the soldier a few minutes longer, but eventually decided to go back and tell mom where he was. When I did she insisted that I take her to him, so now with carrying a kid on my back and levitating myself and my mother I returned to the kitchen. Once they were together again I set to looking for the Twilight, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, but Rainbow Dash found me first. I did not see her first because I had been searching for Twilight first.
“Hey! You never told me you could fly!” Her surprised voice came from behind us and stopped and turned. “We should have a race sometime!” I held out my hands in a warding-off way (as best I could while holding a staff) and shook my head.
“No, no, no! I just found out I could do this two days ago, and it's not very comfortable because I'm being held up by my clothing. I'm kind of afraid to do it by lifting my body because I might break a bone or two by accident.”
“Well if you ever master it, let me know! I'll be ready! In the meantime though, Princess Luna and Celestia sent me to look for you. They've got a plan to end all of this, but she wants all of us to be present when she explains it.”
“If she thinks it can end this, why tell us about it? Why not just do it?” Rainbow Dash shrugged and replied that she didn't know, so I went ahead and followed her through the halls until we finally reached Celestia's personal bedroom. A guard in front of the door opened it for us and we entered and touched down on the floor. Both Celestia and Luna were there, along with Applejack, Twilight, Pinkie, Rarity, and Fluttershy.
“Excellent. Now that you are all here, I shall enlighten you as to what can be done. In ancient times, after the first Dragon War, all remaining nations made a handful of laws that each other nation would have abide by. These laws were written in stone, and then enchanted to bind each ruler and their successors upon pain of death to obey them. One of these laws is that, should one or more of them declare war on another, the ruler of the invaded nation has the right to challenge the ruler of the invading nation to a one-on-one duel to the death. If the challenge is accepted the ruler challenged may choose one or several champions to fight in his or her stead. The loser of the duel must cease hostilities at the conclusion of the fight.” The girls, with the exception of Luna (whom really was closer to being a 'lady' than a 'girl') gasped and there were several objections as well as several who volunteered to be her champions. I had a feeling that she wasn't finished yet and said nothing. Celestia told them to be silent, and the girls hushed. “However, if the challenge is declined then we have one other option: The Elements of Harmony. We can attempt to use them. Though they have never been used on so many targets before. They might not work at all if their power is spread too thinly.” There was a moment of silence, and then I spoke.
“I can understand why you sent for them, your majesty, but why include me in this?” I asked. “I am not a bearer of an Element.” Celestia looked at Luna, who nodded.
“From what my sister tells me your world does not have one leader. Because of this as well as your people not being present at the Law-make, your race are not bound in any way to obey the laws that were made. Regardless of what the outcome may be, I suspect your people will continue to fight our invaders until they leave, and may even try to pursue them out of revenge for those that have been killed. I will speak to the commanders that remain and try to get them to stand down, but if your people should start to kill the Griffons again I want you to use your power to shield them. If I should survive I may be too weak to shield them myself.”
“If you survive?” Twilight Sparkle asked, sounding and looking confused. “But Celestia, you're so powerful! How could you lose?” Celestia smiled at her student's overconfidence in her.
“Another of those laws stated that magic could not be involved in any way during the duel unless both parties involved were using it, and in that circumstance it could only be used on those that had magic unless both parties agreed to the contrary. Given that queen Salda has no magic, it is unlikely that she will allow magic for the duel, and physically, she is the stronger of the two of us.” And she has claws, and a sharp beak. I thought but did not say. Celestia turned her gaze back to me. “So Jacob, do I have your word that you'll protect them from your race?”
I didn't like the idea. Not at all. Given that they'd betrayed their own allies I doubted that losing the fight was something that this 'queen Salda' was afraid of, and if she chose a Champion fight instead of a one-on-one duel, and I was one of those that were picked, what would happen to my parents if we lost?
“If I say yes I want your word on something.” Celestia did not respond positively or negatively, so I continued. “If she calls for a Champion fight and you select me as one of them, and I die, I want you to promise me that you'll make sure that my parents get back to my world safely, and that that you won't tell them what's happened until they're on the other side.” Celestia nodded.
“I do not believe that she will choose a Champion fight, because she has the advantage and she knows it, but you have my word.”
“Then I promise.” I replied.
* * * * *
Zandar listened to the conversation with interest. He had been about to reveal himself to the two horned Pegusai- Those are probably Alicorns...- when his most recent descendant came in carrying a staff along with a flying Cyan Pegasus. The Pegasus he could have cared less about, but the staff drew his attention instantly. Silently he came closer for a better look and examined it, fingers almost touching it. A silvery spiral ran up part of its length and he instantly recognized it for what it was. Or rather, what it had been; it was far too long to be a wand now even if you ignored the absurd length of wood he'd attached to it. He hath done it! He found a way to attach an Alicorn's horn to the wand! He felt jealous that this amateur in magic had discovered something so groundbreaking in the field of Human-magics as this, though in a small way proud that it had been his bloodline that had done it. His fingers twitched mere centimeters away from the ivory and wooden shaft, eager to feel the increased energy surging through him, but he forced himself back to wait. Right now there were too many here that could possibly stop him if he tried, and even an amateur could be dangerous under the right circumstances. Instead he listened to the conversation taking place and a plan began to form in his mind. If he were to join them now they might lose if this Salda decided to fight the Alicorn princess directly, but if he were to go to the queen and convince her to let him fight as her champion, then there was a good possibility that the white Alicorn might choose young Jacob to battle him, and then Zandar could claim the Horn-staff without having to make one of his own, which would mean that after his would expire he'd already have a spare horn to forge another. Also, if he got in good with the victorious side then he could acquire as many horns as he wanted from the losers as he needed them. He almost chuckled, but recalled that he was in a room with possibly-already and soon-to-be enemies and he swallowed the chuckle and retreated a few steps and watched and waited for them to conclude and leave.
Eventually they did, and he filed out of the door behind the six ponies and Jacob. Just before leaving though Jacob spun around and scanned the area where Zandar stood with intense scrutiny. Zandar held his breath while Jacob's eyes swept over him. So that trait was passed down too! It is a good thing that I am invisible!
“What is it, Jacob?” The dark one asked.
“I could have sworn someone was staring at me a second ago.” He said.
“We were watching you go. It might hath been one of us.” Jacob frowned.
“No. No, I don't think it was either of you. I trust you two.” Jacob shook his head a little bit, then turned and continued out of the door.
Zandar imitated his young descendant in hovering above the heads of the beings in the halls and eventually floated out over the edge of a balcony towards the shield. There were no Griffons trying to attack it now, though some still circled it looking for any openings. Now to find their queen. I suppose the swiftest way to do so would be to ask. Zandar waited for a Griffon to circle around into his line of sight, and then made himself visible again, much to the astonishment of the ponies watching from several windows and the surprise of the Griffon. Its surprise did not last long, and it increased its speed towards him, talons outstretched and aiming for his head. Zandar made no move to dodge, but instead suddenly grabbed the Griffon out of the air in an unseen fist created by magic. It squawked in surprise and struggled to free itself, but the grip of the fist never lessened.
Zandar hovered closer to it and stopped when they were eye to eye. The Griffon snapped its beak at him in an attempt to stab his face with its beak, and for a moment Zandar clenched the fist. The snapping of bones came from the creature and he tiled his head to one side like a curious child while it shrieked in agony. He lessened the grip a bit and the creature took another breath to shriek again. Zandar added a gag to its beak.
“I am looking for your queen. I hath a proposition for her that couldst deliver this kingdom to her on a silver platter. You can either tell me where to find her, or I can make your agony worse. It makest no difference to me as I can simply find another Griffon to tell me. There doth seem to be many of you here this day.” He released its beak and the creature whimpered that their queen was at the base of the mountain waiting for Celestia to make a move. “Where?” She was near an old landslide. “You hath been most helpful.” Zandar broke the poor creature's neck and let its corpse fall from the sky to the ground.
Zandar found her where the Griffon said she'd be. Again he'd made himself invisible so that he could get closer to her and waited for a lull in the argument she was having with whom he assumed was a commander of some kind. When one came up he dispelled the magic and waited to be noticed. When he was there was much shrieking of 'assassin!' even though he made no moves of a hostile nature. Several armored Griffons tried to assault him, but he made short work of them. Some he killed, others he maimed horribly, but after each was dealt with he stood motionless again and waited.
Eventually, after he'd killed twelve of the armored ones while committing no other actions against them the queen ordered them to stand down and demanded to know who he was and what he was doing here.
“I am Zandar Lighthand. Perhaps you hath heard of my descendant, Jacob Lighthand?” The queen had heard that there were Two-legs that used magic and that Celestia had made one her pet, but the names meant nothing to her.
“That does not explain why you are here. Given the ease that you slew my guards and yet do nothing more than defend yourself, I suspect that you are not here to kill me as my adviser had shrieked.” Zandar inclined his head.
“I am here to offer you my services. In a short time the Alicorn called Celestia is going to challenge you to a duel. When she does I offer to stand in as your champion.” Salda laughed and asked what possible reason could she have to choose a champion when she could kill Celestia easily enough on her own. “Because I know mine people well enough to know that they shalt not abide by the laws that your world hath set down, and because we were not present at the making of these rules we have no obligation to obey them. They shalt fight you, and from what I hath seen of the carnage in this city, your kind will suffer many casualties if you art not wiped out entirely.” A partial lie. He had no idea if Humanity would abide by the laws or not, but he did believe that the Griffons would suffer heavy losses if they chose to fight back.
“What is it that you will gain out of this, should I agree to it? I find it hard to believe that you would betray your own kind out of some sense of fair play.”
“I want you to swear on the ancient laws that you will allow me to harvest from the pony race whenever I want.”
“We shall be doing the same thing once we win, and oh what a feast!” Salda laughed. “Very well, I swear on the ancient laws that should I choose you as a champion, that you may take from the pony race whenever you wish.” Zandar bowed to her and awaited Celestia's choice.
__ __ __ __ __
“Tia, art thee sure such a course of action is wise?” Luna asked. “Now that the Humans have refilled their weaponry we could defeat the Griffons, and the Griffon have already defeated the Dragons for us, why risk thine life for this?”
“There has been enough blood spilled here today, Luna. No, too much blood has been spilled here. I fear that our streets will be forever stained red from this day on. I would prefer to end this with as little more of it as possible.”
“But, Tia! What if thee should lose?! I- I-...” Luna ran forward and embraced her surprised sister. “I would be all alone, then!” Celestia hugged her sister back. “I doth not wish to loose thee forever! We hath only recently been reunited!” Celestia gently released her sister and removed Luna from her embrace. Luna was crying as her sister looked her in the eyes. Using a hoof and a handkerchief brought to her by her magic Celestia wiped them from her face.
“You will never be alone, Luna. So long as you carry me in your heart, I shall never truly be gone.”
“But that is not the same!” Luna objected. Celestia shook her head.
“No, it is not, but there is no sense in mourning me when I still stand here before you now. If I am meant to succeed in this, then I shall, but if I should not,” Celestia placed the hoof holding the Handkerchief under Luna' chin. “you must promise me that you will lead our people in my stead.”
Luna was silent. She did not want to say that she would it gave her a feeling of dread. The dread that, if she did say yes, that her sister would lose for certain. “Luna?” Celestia's voice was stern now. Luna squeezed her eyes shut, fresh tears leaking from them.
“I promise.”
Celestia and Luna walked side by side through the crowd that had packed itself even more in an attempt to make way for their rulers. It was a tight fit, but the two of them were able to pass through. Celestia had just finished speaking to those in charge of the Human military presence in Equestria, and most of them had agreed to stand down no matter the outcome. A few gave her dubious answers, but promised nothing. She suspected that if her side won that they would probably do nothing to the other side, but if she lost it might be another story. In a way it was comforting to know that if the Griffons continued to slaughter her people that they would not be undefended, but it also made her edgy. If I die then Luna becomes the next ruler of our nation. The Humans are our allies and so we do not lead them, but we did help coordinate their forces. If the Humans attack the Griffons and we've lost, will that mean that Luna will also die for indirectly breaking the ancient law? It was not a thought she enjoyed, but she kept her face confident for the sake of her watching subjects, whom stared at them, looking desperate. Behind them followed her student and her friends, and Luna's student, whom Trixie trailed along behind.
Celestia and Luna stopped at the edge of a balcony and Celestia looked up at the sky. As if they had been sent by a divine entity, dark and thick storm clouds were on their way to the palace grounds, and would be over them soon. Already she could see forks of lightning stabbing down from them and others reaching up from the lands below as they passed over. Had the weather Pegasi been available she would have had them move it to another location, but most of them were had either fled, were dead, or were holed up inside the palace. Dealing with the storm would have to wait for now.
Celestia lowered the barrier and called out in the Royal Voice down to the Griffons below that were starting to jump into the sky again. She informed the queen that she was issuing a challenge to her and then she waited.
Sure enough, within a few minutes Salda came up to the balcony along with a figure that she had not seen alive since she was a child.
“You-!” She gasped, her eyes wide. The Human yawned and looked unimpressed. “You can't be here! You're supposed to be a statue in the hedge maze!” Luna looked at the Human that stood (or rather hovered) next to Salda, and then looked at her sister. Luna did not recognize this man.
“Celestia, who is that?” Celestia's eye narrowed.
“That man- that man killed our father, Luna!” Celestia's voice was barely restrained; her voice hinted at extreme anger, perhaps even hate. Luna's jaw dropped, her eyes widened as Celestia's had and she kept looking back and forth from Zandar to her sister.
“Did you, now?!” Salda exclaimed, looking at her ally in surprise. “I see I did not accept your offer for assistance without merit!”
“Did you release him, Salda?” Celestia asked, her tone dangerously quiet. Salda shook her head.
“He came to me. Now, you said you were going to challenge me? Very well, I accept. I will fight, as will he. You may use magic if you like, I know he certainly will. Now choose who will be fighting for you.”
Celestia turned her head around and looked at Jacob, who nodded and strode forward to stand next to her.
“I will stand as her companion.” He declared.
“And I-” Celestia began, but Luna interrupted her sister and nudged her aside a few steps, to the surprise of everyone and everypony watching.
“And I shalt be fighting in mine sister's stead!” Luna said loudly also in Royal Voice. Thunder rumbled as if to emphasize this choice.
“Luna, no!” Celestia said, worried.
“Sister, I love thee, and always will, but thee and I art not taken from the same mold. I hath more muscle than thou, and where thou hast always searched for a peaceful solution, I was willing to stand up when challenged. This be a fight to the death, and I know that thee shalt show thine opponent mercy should you find advantage, and mercy will only get thee killed in this. I hath always admired thee for thine patient and merciful nature save for when I allowed the Nightmare to corrupt me, and I make up for that now!”
“Besides that, your highness, you've been keeping up a protective barrier for most of the day that has come under attack multiple times whereas Luna has not.” Jacob added. “I mean no insult, but it would not be wise for you to enter into battle tired.” Luna nodded, agreeing with him.
“Enough already! Either fight us or surrender!” Salda demanded, annoyed.
“Agreed.” Zandar added.
Luna looked at her subjects, her sister, and now her student. Jacob levitated himself off the balcony floor.
“I am ready when you are, Teacher.” He said, and yawned. At his yawn the pink pony ran up to him and tossed him a small yellow-iced cupcake. He blinked at it a few times, shrugged, then said thank you to her and ate it.
Luna nodded and looked at Salda, who, along with Zandar, began flying away from the castle. Luna galloped to the edge of the balcony, pumped her wings, and jumped over it into the air.
^ ^ ^ ^ ^
I kept pace with Luna, trying to not look down at the ground below us, which looked like a colored map from our height. I'd had no problem looking at it before from the balcony, but on the balcony I had something solid beneath my feet. My body felt twitchy, though I suspected that it was due less from nervousness or anticipation and more from Pinkie Pie's super-sugary mini-cupcake that I'd just eaten. If that thing doesn't give me diabetes, nothing will! As Rainbow Dash had warned it was sickly-sweet form how much icing had been put in it, but of what little cake there was to it, it was quite tasty.
The sky grew ever-darker as the storm clouds we saw from the balcony edged overhead. In the back of my mind I could hear that nagging little voice calling me a fool, that I shouldn’t be here, that I was way out of my league trying to take on a wizard from the Dark Ages who probably had decades more experience than I did. I saw from his confident face and stance with his arms behind his back as they stopped ahead of us that the voice was probably right and I was a fool.
“So then, now that they are too far away to interfere, shall we begin?” Salda asked, sporting the same confident expression that my ancestor did. His face became a maniacal grin and he moved his hands out in front where I could see that he held in his hand Melinda's horn. It was Melinda that set him free?! Why?!
“Don't let thine guard down, whelp!” He yelled in a sing-song way and rushed forward, jabbing it at me like a dagger. I pulled myself backward and down and he gave chase. I spared a glance at Luna while diving feet-first through the sky with him close above. Luna kicked at Salda while Salda swiped a paw with claws extended. “Pay attention to thine enemy first, boy!” He darted in faster and I made a barrier. The horn pierced right through it and gave me a cut across my face that very nearly became me losing an eye. What?! Horns break through- of course it would, the horn is the our source of the magic to start with. But why does he have such good control of it? He stabbed again and I teleported a short distance away and I knocked him away with a blast of air. As he whirled through the air I curved my course so I'd be able to go back up again without sending my guts into my feet. Now heading up again I looked down and saw that he was surprised and pleased. Pleased? About what?
* * * * *
Zandar had never learned how to teleport. He had heard of other wizards doing, and even witnessed it happening once, but had never done it himself. To now be combating someone that did know how to was a treat all to itself. He could, of course, have simply killed Jacob by breaking his neck, or crushing his ribs into his vital organs, or perhaps tearing off an arm or leg, but regardless of circumstance and like it or not, Jacob Lighthand carried his blood, and Zandar's wife had made him promise never to kill kin for any reason. Because of this promise he would not kill Jacob unless left with no other choice, which gave his opponent an advantage over him. Perhaps it was the only real advantage that he had! Zandar thought with a smile.
For the sake of his personal enjoyment and curiosity at how far Jacob had gotten with magic in the short time he'd been in this world he'd play with him for a few minutes, but when he grew tired of it he'd take the staff and be done. Jacob would be no threat without his magical abilities, and with the staff in hand he could finish off the Alicorn that was currently battling the Griffon. What the Griffon chose to do with Jacob was her business.
^ ^ ^ ^ ^
I threw wind at my opponent again, but this time he re-directed it and I was 'hit' bit it instead. I should have gone to the ground! I thought I squinted my eyes against the wind.
“Interesting.” My enemy stated. “Why were thee not blown around as I were?”
“Like I'm going to tell you!” I shot back, and once more took out my trusty lighter and flicked the switch. There was just one problem: it did not light. What?! Oh no, not now! I flicked the started a few more times with the same result, and then shook it next to my ear while he watched with an amused expression. It was out of fuel.
“'Twould seem thine object be not functioning as thee had expected!” He chortled. “Mayhap thee should have been more prepared for such an event?”
“Are you here to fight, or to talk?”
“Neither, to beith honest with thee. I came for but one purpose, but that can wait. For now, amuse me!” Amuse him? Is he just playing with me? So far other than that stab at my face he hadn't actually done anything serious. Just how far out of my league am I with this guy?
Thunder crackled above my head and I looked up at the clouds. There were a few flashes in the clouds themselves, but no bolts reached down. I looked down at the ground- “You're dropping your guard, again, boy! Eyes up!” He barked as he came at me again, this time snapping his fingers. To my surprise fire danced across his hand as he drew it back as if to punch me. I dove down, but it did not matter. His fist came forward from his hand a column of fire raced down and engulfed first my legs, then the rest of me. Recalling that if you ignore the fuel fire is only heat and light, I used my own magic to disperse the heat around my body as I dove. It worked and the flames went out. In this manner I was able to keep his flames from touching me again by spreading the heat around. If I had not been moving then it probably would not have worked, but the air that I passed into was always cooler than the air I left behind. I looked at him again, once more pursuing me, still throwing fire ahead of him, but now also reaching down. I looked down and saw chunks of earth coming up from the ground. Right now they were not a problem because of how far they were, but that would change in about ten seconds. Rather than flying up I dove down towards them.
* * * * *
What is he planning to do? My control over this power is a bit of a struggle, but he should know better to be trying to dodge them by going in between- Zandar's eyes widened as he felt his manipulation of the earth ripped away and then let the fire go so he could focus entirely of dodging the incoming dirt.
^ ^ ^ ^ ^
Yeah, do that. Do exactly that! As each bit of earth missed him I changed their shape to one thing bar that reached down towards the ground. The storm was directly above us, and lightning always reached up from the highest point. I pulled up more and added it to the extending bar, but did not let it touch the ground yet. If a bolt of lightning can fry a Dragon, what will it do to him, I wonder?
* * * * *
What is he doing? Does he think to make a giant lance? No matter, I am already bored of this. Zandar began to fly closer to his great, great, etc, grandson. Once Zandar had taken his magic away he would fall to his death unless Zandar prevented it.
^ ^ ^ ^ ^
Nearly complete...just a few more seconds...there! I slid the last bit into place and then set a foot on top of the pole. My enemy came towards me and I waited. My skin began to tingle, my hair began to stand up. I reached one hand to the sky and felt the tingle turn into an itch. I extended my other arm out to him, half of my staff pointed at him. He hesitated a moment and stopped. He hesitated a moment too long and I smiled.
Lightning jumped from both the cloud and the ground and raced through the dirt and my body. Though it was not necessary to speak I felt it was fitting
“Heed my call! Lightning, FALL!” The bolt from the sky connected with upraised hand and ran along to my staff. The wood burst into flames and the lightning lanced towards a very surprised old wizard.
* * * * *
“By the night! How did-” Zandar exclaimed before getting hold of himself and erecting a barrier. He was only partially successful and still got struck by a fraction of the bolt's full charge. His hair stood on end, his clothing smoked, and his body went into spasms. As he did so Zandar lost his concentration and plummeted down through the air. He still kept a grip on the horn, however.
^ ^ ^ ^ ^
“Ha HA! Bet you didn't expect that, did ya?!” I yelled triumphantly at him as he fell. I gave the pole I'd made a kick and it also fell. I might have performed a victory dance too if not for the roar that drew my attention to the sky above me. I looked up to see that Luna was still fighting Salda, and Salda was not having as easy a time of it as she'd thought. Both Luna and she were sporting several injuries, and one of Salda's eyes were swollen shut. I wonder if Luna would want me to help her, or if she'd- I heard a snap and a sudden and intense pain shot through my left leg and I screamed and looked down at it. Below the knee and midway to my foot my leg was bent where it should have been straight.
“I hath told you this twice before, and thou still hath not listened!” Came the familiar voice of my ancestor. He sounded angry. But then I'd be angry too if I just got struck by lightning! “Do not let thine guard down!” I heard a second snap and my right arm, my staff arm broke. My scream intensified and I felt myself falling as the staff slipped out of my hand. I fell eight seconds and then I suddenly stopped again. But the pain did not stop. With each pulse of blood a fresh wave of pain assailed my brain. Tears leaking from my eyes I turned my head looking for who could have caught me. It was my ancestor, and he was now holding my staff. “This is what I came for.” He tapped it with the Alicorn horn. “But do not worry, I hath no intention of killing thee.” He looked at the dirt-pole that I'd knocked over when he fell. “That bolt of lightning was a nasty trick. If I had possessed a regular Unicorn's horn thee would hath done me in. I suppose I am just fortunate.” He lowered me to the ground and then straightened my limbs out. I bit my lower lip to keep from crying out again but could not stop a whimper. He looked at my face with pity. “I must apologize, but healing was never mine strong point. You shalt have to wait until this contest hath reached its conclusion to gain assistance.” He turned and began to walk back to the 'battlefield', leaving me lying on the ground. He looked up where the two rulers where fighting and began to lift off again.
“Wait!” I called to him. He stopped a moment and looked back at me. “What's your name?”
“Zandar. Zandar Lighthand.” He looked away again and continued floating up.
“Well then, Zandar Lighthand, I have something to tell you.” I reached my left hand towards my unbroken leg.
“Yes? And what might that be?” He asked, still floating upward. This time he did not turn to look at me. I pulled the pistol the soldier gave me from its holster and pressed the safety setting off and pointed the muzzle at his back.
“You let your guard down!!!” I pulled the trigger five times.