//------------------------------// // Challenges and Triumphs // Story: Dimension Jumper // by redtau //------------------------------// The mood of the whole castle was a mixture of tense and depressing. D had spent the last three days sulking around the castle, and it was a world class sulk too. More than once I overheard a canid or minotaur talk about turning a corner and running into this thing of smoke and bone. A few had startled and fled but most just noted that, for all the menace it's form held, D's demeanor gave them the impression of an Emo teenager. In three days he had failed to find anything in the castle to support his wild ideas of me building an army or any connection to ARCO. He had spooked most of the work teams and was even doing his best to creep out the changelings. It all came to a head this morning though. "Watch your step, you noxious fume!" I looked up from where I was reading contracts at my throne to see one of the gryphon's glaring at D. "You ran into me worm breath." "What did you say smokestack?" The gryphon flexed it's claws and everyone else in court started cautiously backing away. "You heard me mix and match. Was the animal you got your ears from deaf?" "Someone ought to open a window and air you out!" "Feather-duster!" "Old fart!" "Are you two going to actually fight or just throw insults at each other?" I asked, glaring at them. "Either way, take it outside. You are interrupting court." "I don't take orders from you." D said, rounding on me. "What next? Are you going to start crying, telling me I'm not your real mom?" "Shut up!" "Your majesty!" a canid runner called, bounding into court. "Your majesty! A unicorn noble is outside the gates demanding entrance. He claims this is his castle." I blinked a few times while murmuring filled the court. "Ah. Him." Seriously? Again? Didn't we kick his ass hard enough last time? I turned to the few creatures who had set themselves up as my aids. "Would you fetch my armor, sword and dagger? Oh, and get me a second dagger and a dozen charged gems, just in case." The pair of canids loped off, while I directed my attention back to the rest of the court. "Calm down everyone. I think I know who this is and what they want." I stood, accepting my armor as it was brought. "This shouldn't take too long." I glared at Lord Harold from the castle side of the main gate. He was dressed in light armor, a steel breastplate and barding on his forelegs and had a pair of short swords were strapped to his sides. It had all the hallmarks of dueling armor, light and only armored on the front so you could move easily and were encouraged to keep facing your enemy. He glared at me, obviously irked by my presence for some reason. "I'd heard rumor that the demon of the forest had finally come to claim your head. It appears my information was mistaken." "Go away Harold, I have more important things to do than to put up with you. Even if all I had to do was watch paint dry for the next twelve hours it would STILL be more important than you." He drew his swords with his magic and pointed one at me. "Face me in the field of combat!" I rested my hand on my sword and smirked at him. "You'll have to get in line, I've got a number of challenges for my so called throne and holdings." "I'll not wait almost two centuries just for a shot at a pest like you." Now how does he know it's a 175 year wait I wonder? "Then you forfeit and should just leave." "At least I can leave, but you are going to be trapped here forever." "I may be slow on construction but I'm not that slow." I waved my hand at the work being done. "I'll be out of here in another few weeks?" "Really?" he asked, his horn glowing brighter. "What are you-" I jumped a little at a crashing sound to my right. A small boulder, no bigger than a cannonball, had knocked a section a few feet wide off the top of the nearby wall. As I watched, more crumbled away. Harold started laughing. I drew my sword. "I win, you don't try and dismantle my castle again." "When I win, you will serve me as bodyguard in this castle until repairs are finished and then you will be tossed into the forest without a bit to your name." I looked back at the canids, gryphons and zebras watching from the square. "If you win, you don't kick anyone out. They get to leave on their own, in their own time, with their own things." I watched him wrestle with that for a moment. "Deal." A sword flew out and etched a wide circle around him and I. "Cross the line or yield the fight and you lose." I nodded and held my sword ready. "Ready when you are." I was prepared for this kind of fight, it was something I was training for with Steel before he left. Standard unicorn combat was to keep one sword near you for defense and to send the other out to attack with. So naturally I was a little stunned when both swords came flying at me. Sometimes having only one arm really sucks. I parried a blow from the first blade and managed to barely sidestep the second and, suddenly, found myself between Harold and his blades. I lunged forward, hoping to drive him back. He stood smiling like an imp as I closed the distance. I never made it. Three quarters of the way across our impromptu arena and just beyond the gate my wrist was slammed back behind me. I lost my balance and fell. Looking back, it was clear to see what had halted my progress. Celestia's accursed binding was glowing with a golden light, and I could move my arm no further. Harold, smug fucker that he was, actually walked closer. "What's the matter? Has the stuck up abomination actually forgotten where the walls of her cage were?" I gritted my teeth and pulled, only to feel the golden sidgils heat up. There was a sizzling sound, and the smell of flesh burning, but I didn't pull back. A look of worry flashed across Harolds face, and I fixed him with a glare that said I would rip my own arm off to get to him if I needed to. His horn glowed, and I fell back to defend myself from his blades again. Now he followed a standard defense, keeping one sword close just in case. He still wouldn't shut the fuck up though. "Come on you little bitch, just give in. You can't beat me. Hades, you can't even REACH me. You are bound so tightly to your leash that all you can do is strain at it and bark." "Take six steps closer and repeat that," I said, deflecting another blow. The blades were fast but there wasn't much power behind them. A moment later though, my own sword was ripped from my hand. Three magical blades circled around me, all pointing in my direction. A fourth joined them when I reached for my dagger. "Yield. I have no desire for a dead servant," Harold said, ignoring cries of "Bad form!" and "Honor-less mutt" from the assembled creatures. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a gem, only to have that pulled from my hand and tossed to the ground. "Trying to bribe me now?" The blades dipped for a moment as Harold's magic pulled at my clothing, dumping the other dozen gems out on the ground. "You are pathetic you know? What would be the point in taking gems into a fight? You can't even reach me to draw a circle." I stood there stalling, trying to think. The blades nicked at me, forcing me back until me heels were at the inside edge of the circle. Bastard, I'd like to cut him down to size. An idea blossomed in my mind, and I had to fight to keep the smile off my lips. "Your right. I can't nail you to the ground. I can't spin you like a top or throw you back into that ridiculous carriage of yours. I'm bound to this castle." A grin spread across my face. "But Nightmare isn't." Turquoise fire leaped into life around Harold, tracing intricate patterns and linking the magical circles to the scattered gems. "WHAT IN LUNA'S NAME IS-" his steel armor slammed him to the ground, finally silencing his wretched voice. In an instant he lost all control over his blades, and the circles shifted, spinning and twisting and pushing on the metal in his armor. "Get out of my castle." Dizzy and bruised, Harold struggled to his feet as the circle beneath him shifted for one final time. With a disturbingly high pitched scream the disgraced and defeated noble was launched through the air, crashing back down to earth through the roof of his fancy carriage. The two pegasai had the sense to lift off. I turned and walked back into the courtyard, picking up my sword as I went. "Well, that was certainly-" Boom BOOM BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM Creatures cried and ran for cover as stones and boulders rained down against the outer wall, pounding larger and larger holes in the structure. A well aimed one even smashed through the nearest tower's roof. I looked up up in the sky at a hanging carriage, a ragged noble bastard hanging out the side, his horn lit like the sun. "YOU LOST!" I screamed up at him. "YOU CHEATED!" "You had NO PROBLEM using Celestia's CURSE against me! No trouble when YOU ripped MY weapons from my HANDS!" "YOU CHEATED!!" he repeated, half maddened. "YOUR CLAIM IS FORFEIT! THE CASTLE IS MINE!" I pointed my sword at him, allowing Nightmare's power to flare out of me in a wide shadow at my feet. Within the shadow, dozens of eyes opened. "Come and take it." Harold floated for a moment longer before taking off. D walked up beside me looking at the ruined wall. "So, does this happen a lot?"