Tin Universe Daily #137
There are so many versions of some stories,
Especially when a prospective to the title of
The Pledge is screwing with reality in Utah,
She
did not know what to do. Would you? Yes, she was frightened. Bet your life
right down to her feet she was scared. Her arms were shaking so badly they
ached.
Yes,
she was tired also. Her knees where holding her up only by the fact that the
wall she had backed against was holding the rest of her up, but through the
fear and the fatigue there was something else there.
She
held her sword with its shinning green blade up with both hands to try and keep
them at a distance to help her not only catch her breath but also just get a
few moments to think.
Everything
happened so fast when the battle broke. One minute she was preparing to be on
the training grounds of Camelot and the next she was being hunted through the
old ruins in the Mardock Forest by a group of vampires who were part of a bigger
army attacking the city.
See
no army attacked Camelot...it did not happen. No one attacked Camelot itself,
the outer lands yes, maybe, but not the city. This was one of those things that
do happen in life that just should not be happening to those living the events.
At least that is the way the person living the events think.
The
vampire basically came out of nowhere, just as vampires tend to do. She was
cinching up her horse’s saddle when the first strikes of the attack began.
Alone in the stables outside of the cities walls is where she found herself.
This is the place knights in training are required to stable their horse but
also where the first blood was drawn in this sudden war that erupted in The
Kingdom Of Merlin’s Watch as the underworld calls Camelot.
The
first one to strike at her and maybe the first one to beat the first blow of
battle in the attack came from behind. From behind her and out from the shadows
in a corner of the stables hardly used because of reasons not worth mentioning.
Her
training made her turn swiftly drawing her sword when she heard footsteps
walking softly behind her but then there was no one there. Could she have
imagined it was the thought that crossed her mind first? The training with Sir
Gwain had become very intense of late and she was not sleeping that well thinking
about her Knighthood Trial; which was in a month’s time.
But
the thought of imagining footsteps was transformed into a nothing thought when
she turned back to her horse to find the animal she had named as a child Cloud
laying on the ground dead of a broken neck, though she did not know the cause
at this time. The huge in weight animal had been killed and gently laid to the
ground that made up the floor of the stable and the thing that had done this
deed was standing across from her in the stable with a blood smeared smile on
its face.
Her
first thoughts when drawing her sword up in a combat stance was how the
atmosphere of the barn had grown cold. She had been told of Vampires during her
training with Merlin but never thought she would come to see one herself.
Merlin
had told all Knights of Camelot during their education training the story of how
the vampires had been banished to a sand land by himself, another wizard called
Delta, alongside Knights of Camelot to a place of eternal grit and fear.
The
vampire in the barn with her was dressed from head to toe in what appeared to
be black bandages and from across the barn the young knight in training could
smell an odor most rancid that could only have come from one direction.
This
vampire at first just stood in the very spot she first saw him standing without
any sort of movement at all. Vampires are very good at being still, without a heartbeat
to hold you back still is a natural state to be in. But she was surprised when
its first movements came in words spoken in speech that was lined with an
accent foreign to her, ‘A little pup knight of Camelot I have here. Yes, a
crusader in training. They send me out as scout to sing them in to attack but I
also find myself a snack.’
She
pushed her feet and her sword forward a few inches, ‘Back to Hell with you
creature of Satan!’
The
vampire stood straighter almost pride filled in the words that came from the
young knight directed towards him, ‘Oh, but sir knight is it not one of the
very sons of Satan who sits by the right side of your King? I am just a humble
pet of my master.’
‘Which
Lord do you serve creature?’ she asked
‘My
lord is not of Heaven nor Hell. He hates both just the same. My lord is not one
who speaks in riddles or plays games of sides. My lord and master is eternal.
He has walked with The Setting Sun and The Morning Star and stood within the
past and the future.’
She
moved forward even closer to the vampire, ‘What is you masters name so I can
curse him after cutting off your head?’
‘My
master is feared by the name of his birth place, Russia.’
But
as the name of the creatures master left its bloody lips the young knight in
training began to hear screams in the night air and found herself surrounded
now by four other creatures of the night who appeared from smoke which had
drifted in through the stables side door without her notice.
The
vampires who surrounded her in a circle with the bandage wrapped one wore not
bandages but armor that shined as black as the Knights Of The Round Tables
armor shined white and in their hands they held swords that curved like a
demons tongue.
She
stood with her sword still facing the smaller vampire without much idea for how
she would get out of this fight alive when charging into the stables a familiar
face came swinging sword in hand, taking off the heads of two of the armored
vampires before they could even move in speed.
It
was Sir Gwain, one of the most noble of King Arthur’s Knights and a founding
member of The Round Table. He placed himself where he could stand back to back
with the young knight, ‘I thought you may need a hand in the stables?’
Her
arms seemed to almost grow stronger hearing his voice, ‘Yes, the low duties of
a squire sometimes need the help of a High Knight.’
Gwain
looked at her from the corner of his eye and smiled as more armored vampires
appeared in the stables from smoke that came from nothingness.
The
small vampire who had jumped up high into the hayloft when Sir Gwain entered
was now hanging by clawed feet from the loft, ‘Outnumbered are the shiny
knights of day light.’
The
battle started as the armored vampires charged the back to back warriors. The banter
was loud as the knights shouted while taking down vampires. The knight in
training having to cut off heads to vanquish the enemy while human death wounds
from Gwain’s green blade would take down the creatures just as if they were
mere mortals themselves.
‘Fight
on Knights Of Camelot for our army is eternal in numbers!’ shouted the small
vampire from his lofty perch.
‘So
is your mouth without the courage of battle worm?’ shouted back Gwain
The
two warriors were getting tired and worried about what was going on in the rest
of the city as battle was heard loud from outside the stables. As the number
doubled of tongued blades flying at them Gwain was caught with a cut across his
face, a fatal blow, and he fell at the feet of his daughter, his sword turning
to plant roots and rooting itself to the ground as his last breath passed away
and it settled with the straw and dust on the ground.
The
daughter, the knight in training, had no time to grieve because she was
fighting for her life full of anger and hate already at thoughts of friends and
other family members who could be dying. As she began to swing wild in style,
knowing this was not a way to survive in battle she noticed that, as there was
many vampires fighting her more also were guarding the smaller vampire as he
watched in joy at the battle that was raging in the stables still hung from the
hayloft ceiling.
Joanshir
the daughter of Sir Gwain and The Maiden Of The Green throw her sword as hard
as she could and it perched the heart of the smaller vampire and it fell from
the loft slamming to the floor with a huge force for such a small creature. She
did not have time to think of why this did not kill this particular vampire but
instead was glade her thoughts where right as all of the vampires in the stable
turned their attention from her to the fallen vampire in bandages.
She
looked at her father for a second but could not afford a second more. Joanshir
grabbed her father’s sword, pulled it from the rooted ground. It changed back
to its green blade form as she gripped it, and she dived out a side stable door
facing The Mardock Forest and ran for the trees in thought to gather her wits
before heading back to battle and defend the city her father loved and died
for.
The
Mardock Forest was a place by Merlin’s own words where the pain of the future
was polluting the past. But all the things Merlin has said that is wise is out
distanced by the things he has said that just confuse most of The Knights Of
Camelot. And though Joanshir has learned much from Merlin she also has grown to
take everything that comes from his mouth with a grain of untrust. Most Knights
think along the same as her and almost all have taken Merlin’s words as a
warning and stayed clear of the forest. All but her father who took up the charge
of protecting it from the enemies of Camelot. Thus was his duty and that of all
he trained, so she knew actually where to head in her mad sprint away from
blood hungry vampires.
Deep
in the center of the forest stood very old and out of the ordinary ruins. Out
of ordinary for the place the lands the ruins sat within. Some of them appeared
normal to a person of the time to be the ruins of what once was a small castle
but other parts of the ruins where beyond understanding to the smartest of this
time but were also not of magic but of our time.
That
our being you and me reader. We would see it as rusted husks of jeeps from The
Korean War, tanks from The Gulf War, and armaments used during the American
Revolutionary War.
Joanshir
also loved the forest beyond the belief of even her father. She saw it as
wonder and adventure she could touch. As a child or adult it also felt safe but
as she ran towards her former safety place from the world she began to hear
soft running footsteps behind her. These were the footsteps of the dead.
Jumping
over a wall made of materials she had never seen elsewhere she began crawling
through a tunnel she had found when she was in her youth and when she was
smaller because she is squeezing her way through the tunnel right now with a
little difficulty. The tunnel led to an armory her father has built up. The
armory was mostly a collection of sort for him to stare at but all fully
functional and ready for battle if needed. Jumping down from the crawl space
entrance tunnel her mind was racing. Her father used an entrance that led down
from the castle archery area.
Her
father is now dead.
She
quickly learns that without a torch the armory is quite dark but the green glow
from her father’s sword kept her from falling over things. Above her head she could
hear feet moving about and loud thuds hitting the ground. A battle is raging
now above. Grabbing a small cross given to her father by Merlin, bags of
crystal stones, and a few more daggers she headed back up the crawl space.
Emerging
from the small entrance she heared silence. No swords clashing, no armor splitting.
Turning slowly she felt her heart twist and started to begin to speed up the
beats and it pounded within her chest as she saw the battle scene that she
heard from below ground. Twelve Defender Knights dead and standing among the
noble bodies are six armored vampires. They turned at once spotting her and
begin their charge forward.
Joanshir
backed up. Seeing the bodies lying there may have been the last straw for her
spirit. She backed up stumbling over her own feet and fell backwards against a
left standing wall in the ruins. The armored vampires surrounded her. She
pushed her sword out and tried to catch her breath and thinking of nothing but
the fact that her moment of death seemed to be approaching.
(c)System * Publishing
brian c.williams
brian c.williams
Coming May 31st 2015
Tin Universe Month #24
Featuring A FIRST SHOT FIRED, Part Six
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