Moon 514- Blaze and the White Griffon

by Drew Briney

  “Bolt!” Blaze ordered his staff, a loud deafening noise crackling throughout the room and startling not a few of the soldiers. With nothing visible behind the noise, several of the men showed some doubt as to what was going on and as to what they would be expected to do. While some were beginning to feel a little fearful of Blaze, others were emboldened by their leader.

  “More theatrics?” the leader scoffed, raising his arm a little higher and more threateningly as he tensed his muscles. “Really, I do think you should reconsid…”

  Blaze was taking no chances. The projectile function of his staff had not been tested against this much firing power and he wasn’t willing to take the chance that it might not work long enough to protect their lives so he spun his still invisible staff towards his new aggressor and shot him with a single energy bolt, hoping the speed and surprise of the shot might prevent the other soldiers from discerning what was happening. With only a brief glow of energy to betray the presence of his weapon, the ringleader fell silent to the ground.

  “Anyone else?” Blaze taunted, hoping that someone would come forward and offer him to meet the senior officer or “Master,” whomever that might be.

  But his hopes were dashed.

  “Fire,” a voice ordered from among the remaining ranks of men.

  “Drop!” Blaze ordered Evelia and shot a string of bullets all around the room in one quick but dense arch of bullets.

  While Evelia tried to use her new powers to keep the men from firing their weapons, Blaze continued to shoot towards whoever remained standing or moving after the first volley of shots fired out of his staff. Three things happened then. First, Evelia completely failed to accomplish anything at all. Between her stress, the number of people involved, and her inability to focus on each person or where they were, she was unable to exercise any meaningful control over anyone in the room. Second, Blaze’s staff successfully deflected the several energy bullets that were aimed at Blaze. Third, Evelia discovered that the sphere of protection from the staff decreased in size as large waives of energy bolts found their way towards the couple – one bolt of energy deeply grazed her left ankle and left her writhing in pain while Blaze finished his work.

  Within a very few moments, the room was silent apart from Elayuh’s cries and Evelia’s intermittent moaning – interspersed with hushing sounds and soothing words for the baby.

  “I’m okay,” Evelia assured Blaze when she was sure that the shooting was over and that he had become aware of her. “Can you help me move over to that corner so I can be out of the line of fire when reinforcements come?” she requested, pointing to where she wanted to move. “I heard one of the men calling for more soldiers. We will not be alone for long.”

  Eyes still nervously glancing around the room to make sure they were safe, Blaze picked up Evelia while she was still holding the baby and quickly moved her into a spot that would be outside of the field of vision of someone entering through the main door. As he set her down and began moving through the fresh corpses to make sure everyone was dead and to stash a couple pistols in his belt, Blaze realized that it would take more than a visual hiding spot to conceal the crying baby and hoped that Evelia could calm her down soon. It took a number of minutes before Blaze’s tour through the few dozen soldiers was complete but he was able to feel secure of his position before he heard the sound of footsteps outside of the room.

  She is still whimpering, he stressed, looking towards the baby’s hiding spot. Only four men, he guessed and then heard more footsteps gathering at the door – footsteps that came from the other direction. Five more. Nine total. Lying on the ground, he leaned on his elbow behind two men piled in front of him as cover and pointed his staff towards the door. Then, for the first time, he noticed a side door not far from him as the sound of several more men made their way to this second entrance. Rats! he inwardly grumbled. Fourteen total and these would be harder to shoot. Blaze considered the timing and sequences of shots he would need to make in order to keep soldiers from rushing towards Evelia while simultaneously keeping them from getting too close to Blaze and thus forcing a physical confrontation. There wasn’t time for that – he had to leave this as a shooting battle in case more reinforcements came.

  Undoubtedly, the soldiers outside the room were waiting to rush through the doors together so they would have a better chance at controlling the situation inside and Blaze wondered how many more men might be coming. Part of him hoped that the entire mob of conspirators would show up so that he could dispose of them all at once. Part of him hoped that there were no more men coming and anxiously waited for the doors to open.

  The room was silent now. Evelia had successfully quieted Elayuh. Blaze wondered why the ambush hadn’t started yet – undoubtedly, they could hear that things were calm on the inside. To the soldiers outside, that would either mean that the situation was secure or that things had gone gravely wrong – either way, they should be coming inside any second. But they didn’t. They patiently held their ground. Something was up. He sensed it. He worried about what technology these men might have and began to worry that they might be planning to gas the room or do something worse.

  Blaze abandoned his plan. He stood up, walked towards the door and commanded it to open. As soon as the door opened, a few young, scared soldiers shot their pistols towards Blaze but they were too late. Between his protective staff and his shots towards them, there were nine more dead soldiers on the outside of the hallway within a very few short seconds –but the other door remained shut and the soldiers behind it held their ground without moving. Not even bothering to command the other door to open, Blaze shot a string of energy bolts through that door with the intent of destroying everyone on the other side. From the thudding sounds he heard, it sounded as if his efforts were successful.

  “If this keeps up, we will barely have enough crew to run this ship,” Blaze cursed in frustration, looking over his right shoulder towards Evelia. But before she was able to say anything in return, there were more footsteps approaching the room and the sound of a young boy resisting his captors. Blaze held his still cloaked staff carefully aimed towards the open door, waiting for whatever new evil was to come his direction.

  But the first face he saw was very dear to him.

  Jazz rounded the corner with very frightened eyes, his hands bound and his mouth gagged. Ropes around his arms further kept him from running away from the fierce grip that held him close. “Checkmate,” cackled a gravely male voice as he turned the corner. “Drop your weapons Blaze. We have some business to discuss.”

  GRATEFUL THAT HE HAD STUFFED two pistols in his belt, Blaze slowly grabbed one, held it out, and dropped it to the ground, pushing it away with his foot once it hit the ground. He disposed of the second pistol in similar fashion. Receiving a suspicious look from the gravelly voiced man, Blaze held his hands up in the air in submissive position as if completely defenseless – but continued to keep a strong grip on his staff with his thumb.

  “That’s better,” grumbled the scratchy baritone. “Are you ready to discuss terms now?” he continued in a jesting fashion.

  “Terms for what?” Blaze genuinely queried while looking for any weak position his new opponent might offer and warily watching the four other men entering into the room. They decidedly formed a semicircle facing Blaze while staying behind the new ringleader. One soldier was moving a little too close to Evelia, leaving Blaze feeling uneasy. The slightest noise from Elayuh really could deliver Blaze into a checkmate position here and he wasn’t especially anxious to give himself up after gaining so much ground. Were he to be bound up, there would be no more hiding of his staff. Evelia was injured and Blaze doubted whether or not her mental persuasions would be very effective under these circumstances – especially when she had been relatively unable to do anything a little earlier. Sweat started beading on his brow. Stress.

  “Terms for your allegiance of course.” The rather burly man who belonged to the gravelly voice was eyeing Blaze’s
handiwork as if he had zero emotional attachment to any of the fallen men. “It looks like having you on our team might be worth more than at least thirty of master’s soldiers,” he added rather matter-of-factly and with an emotional indifference that made Evelia shudder as she huddled in her hidden corner.

  Blaze slowly lowered his hands as he stood in front of the five soldiers and casually rested them next to his side. “What sort of allegiance are you talking about?” Blaze queried again. He wanted more information but he was also fishing for an opening to control the situation. He noticed the man tended to rest his weight on his left foot while Jazz was being held with his right hand – counterintuitive, Blaze considered. He is not nervous. Jazz, in contrast, was very nervous.

  “And why should I believe that your master will not make every effort to kill me at his first opportunity? Look around,” Blaze commanded with a small wave of his hand towards the many fallen men on the opposite side of the room as Evelia and Elayuh. “Was it not your master that rigged the tournament this morning? Was it not your master that helped Jerron smuggle a real weapon so that he could try to kill me in the simulator? Was it not your master that sent these thirty men to kill me? Who is this man that I should trust him?”

  “Oh, not so,” beamed the man as if greatly amused by Blaze’s accusations, “but fair enough. … I can see where you are coming from. First of all, Jerron was an ambitious soul – he acted on his own. Undoubtedly, he was trying to gain favor in the sight of master but his efforts were not under any compulsion or order of master. Second … these men,” he added, his voice trailing a little. “These men were ordered to initiate negotiations – nothing more.”

  Blaze listened to the explanation and felt an initial feeling of guilt and remorse before recalling details of conversations that suggested otherwise and before remembering their threats towards Evelia. No, these men were no negotiation team, Blaze concluded. He was being fed lies and he knew it. His budding remorse mutated into indignation and anger.

  “No matter,” the burly man continued, interrupting Blaze’s thoughts. “If they are unfamiliar with the art of negotiating, that is no matter to stop us from coming to a mutual understanding is it?” The question was not really a question and Blaze understood that so he said nothing and simply nodded politely to encourage the man’s continued speaking. Jazz was struggling somewhat to get away from his captor and received a fierce tug backwards in return, resulting in a short but powerful blow to his little head. The young boy staggered, struggling to retain consciousness but only barely holding on.

  Continuing as if nothing happened, the gravelly voice continued. “This is simple so let’s not take too much time going over the terms. You swear allegiance to master and he doesn’t order the execution of this boy, your girlfriend, or your baby …” His voice trailed again as he looked around the room. “Presuming she is not already dead,” he added, unable to spot her.

  “Let me go,” Jazz yelled in frustration, his words almost inaudible because of the gag wrapped around his mouth. With both legs tied together, he did his best to jump away from the man, only to slam hard onto the ground face first as his captor tightly held onto his ropes.

  The failed effort was precisely what Blaze was waiting for.

  Raising the hand holding the bo staff, he made a carful aim – as best as he could without actually seeing the weapon’s tip. He quickly shot two energy bolts towards the burly man’s left hip, hoping to knock him off balance and significantly immobilize the man before shooting the remaining four soldiers with a string of bullets that sent them quickly to their graves. Then, before the fallen ringleader could react, Blaze twisted the grip of his staff and struck the man’s leg that was nearest to the young warrior. If shock from the bullet wound didn’t immobilize his opponent, an electrical shock would rid him of his consciousness.

  “It is going to be okay,” Blaze comforted Jazz as he spotted a blade on the fallen man’s belt. “I’ll have you out of those bonds in no time,” he added, cutting through the first rope.

  “You are using contractions!” Jazz answered happily. “Something bad must have happened to you!” he added in jest.

  “Door! Close,” Blaze ordered, wondering why the door had been left open after the soldiers arrived with Jazz. Then he added, “Lock,” just in case it would receive that command from anyone – this was, after all, a public room.

  “Are you alright Evelia?” Blaze asked as he continued to unwind Jazz’s ropes. He would need them to bind the burly ringleader – whomever he was. His wounds were not bleeding too badly – energy bolts have a tendency to soldier the tissue that they burn through but he would undoubtedly bleed to death if he did not receive adequate medical attention quickly enough. At the same time, Blaze needed to tie him up to avoid any further complications.

  “Evelia!” Blaze called, his voice raised louder than last time.

  “Yes?” she answered.

  “Are you alright?”

  “Well,” she began with a strained voice. “I am in a good deal of pain over here but I am okay … Elayuh is fine too … Isn’t she remarkable? She is asleep. Throughout all of that, she just slept through that whole last fight … like nothing happened. I just love her. She is so sweet …”

  “Thanks Blaze!” Jazz emoted, wobbly standing up as he rubbed his arms where the ropes had been a little too tight. “Ow, that hurts,” he added, feeling that horrible sensation that comes when part of your body has been asleep and then the blood starts circulating again. He continued to rub his arms but noticed his legs were starting to hurt like that too. On top of that, bruises on his head were throbbing – he was starting to feel frustrated.

  “No. Thank you,” Blaze answered the young boy. Without your courage, we might still be in checkmate!”

  “Check what?”

  “Checkmate. It is a term from a game thousands of years old. It means you cannot win,” Blaze explained.

  “That cannot happen with you around Blaze,” the boy gushed. “No one can beat you!”

  Smiling at Jazz’s confidence, Blaze felt encouraged.

  “It is very good to see you,” Blaze answered sincerely, cinching the last knot securing the burly man’s ankles. “It does my heart good to have you around,” he added – and Jazz could tell he meant it.

  “Wait ‘til Dr. Boyd hears about this,” Jazz said, shaking his head in disbelief. “He will never believe all of this.”

  “No one told you?” Blaze blurted before considering his question more carefully.

  “Told me what?” Jazz replied.

  “Ummm. … Never mind,” Blaze answered, suddenly realizing that he didn’t have time for this conversation right now. “Security!” Blaze called out loud, instantaneously debating the wisdom of his request.

  “Yes,” answered the automated system for public rooms. “We need medical personnel in here immediately. There are two wounded: one severe, one minor,” he instructed. Then, looking towards Evelia, he added, “I am not trying to minimize your injury in any way … I am just speaking in terms of the secur…”

  “I know,” she interrupted. “It’s okay.”

  “Wow!” Jazz piped in enthusiastically. “You are using contractions too? What is going on?”

  Ignoring his question, Blaze cut off the sleeve of the burly man to unveil the mystery mark carried by the followers of this man everyone referred to as “master.” The half burned, half tattooed design was initially unintelligible and left Blaze uncertain what it symbolized at all.

  “Are you certain that it is wise to call security?” Evelia asked, wondering what might happen next.

  “Sooner or later, we have to set things straight,” Blaze answered with a distracted voice, trying to figure out the meaning of the mark. It seemed to be a creature of some sort but someone’s artistic license obscured its true nature. “Besides, you cannot heal yourself yet can you?” He was half teasing, half serious. Fairly sure that she would not have the slightest ability to use magic of that comp
lexity, he didn’t really expect an answer from her.

  “Checkmate,” cackled a strong gravely male voice just as it had several moments before. Instinctively, Blaze stood up, spun around, and held a warrior stance while aiming his staff towards the unseen intruder. “Drop your weapons Blaze. We have some business to discuss,” it continued. Blaze found himself pointing his staff towards Evelia who was sporting a huge smile. “That’s better,” grumbled the scratchy baritone a second time after the sound of two pistols completed their clanking noises on the floor. “Are you ready to discuss terms now?”

  “It worked!” Evelia exclaimed, clearly proud of herself.

  Blaze, as puzzled as puzzled gets, barely understood what was going on. “You recorded that?” he asked in disbelief.

  “Yes!” Evelia gloated. “The console over here has a recording function for public meetings. I got it all – and not just the audio – I got the entire thing recorded on hologram,” she boasted with cocked eyebrow and a smile that looked like it was fetching some congratulations. She needed this temporary distraction from the pain pulsing from her leg.

  “Wow,” Blaze called out, noticeably impressed. “Like I said before … you are brilliant!”

  SHE DUG HER TOES INTO THE SCRATCHY SAND, unconsciously flexing and curling them with methodical precision and busily absorbing energy from all around her. Digesting her environment, she welcomed the cooling sensations of a breeze that wrapped itself around her body as if painting her with its renewing energy. Her toned legs tensed now as she leaped forward and began to walk towards the outcropping that hung over the splendiferous beach below. Closing her eyes as a heavy gust of wind blew sand all around her body, she relaxed as particles of the earth exfoliated her skin before innocently falling again to the sandy soil below. When the gust of wind passed by, she swatted the excess sand off of her oversized eyelashes and opened her wide eyes to watch the tide of water. She breathed in luxuriously, enjoying the unique smell of the ocean waters below and smiled as she listened to the crashing tide of pounding waves.