Days of Future Past - Part 2: Present Tense

by John Van Stry

  "How long until I have to fight Tse?" I asked him.

  "Not very, I'm afraid. He is pushing to get things ready as fast as possible. I suspect he really does fear you."

  I nodded and started in on the meat on the plate. I didn't want to have a full belly slowing me down, so I avoided the bread that was with it.

  "So, what's the consensus? Are they rooting for me, or against me?"

  "Some are concerned that you were a slave," Atsida said slowly, "still others are concerned that you will be fighting the chief's son. However," he smiled, "the rumor has been spreading through the camp that you were the one who killed the dragon and when asked, Riggs would not deny it.

  "Also it is now well known that Riggs wanted to release you, that he has some task for you, but it was only Tse's arguing and his father's friends backing him which prevented it."

  "Wow, that's a lot of rumors," I said and took another drink of water.

  "I do what I can," he said with a smile.

  I looked up at him, "Why?"

  "Using poison is a coward's trick. While I have not confided what you told me to others, I have had time to think about how certain others in the tribe who were in conflict with Tse have become ill in the past. Some even died."

  "And no one became suspicious?" I asked, a little surprised.

  Atsida shrugged, "His friends claimed it was the will of the gods and his father has a blindness when it comes to his son, so anyone saying otherwise would find themselves in a difficult position."

  I nodded and handing the plate back I slowly got to my feet. My legs were sore, and my side hurt where I'd been kicked several times today. I started to stretch and try to work the kinks out. I suspected I had some rather nice bruises under my shirt.

  Atsida looked around and handed me a small brass cartridge with a stopper of some sort in the top.

  "What is this?"

  "Powder from the tsurupe plant. It is a stimulant."

  I took it and pulling out the stopper I could see there was definitely some sort of powder in there, but not much.

  I looked up at him and shrugged, then putting the opening to my nostril I held the other one closed with a finger and took a deep sniff.

  "Paul!" Atsida said looking rather shocked.

  I blinked my eyes and shook my head rapidly side to side. Last time I had done something like this had definitely been quite a few years ago in my very disreputable and long past days.

  "What?" I said as I felt the burn and looked in the casing, there was still some left.

  "You're supposed to mix it with water!"

  "Water is for pussies," I said and putting the cartridge to my other nostril I leaned my head back and took a second hit.

  "Whoa, feel the burn!" I gasped and slipped the cartridge into my pants pocket while I pinched my nose a few times and blinked as my eyes started to tear up a little.

  Atsida was shaking his head, "You're crazy, Paul."

  "Yeah, I know." I started to stretch slowly, working out the tightness in my legs. I could already feel my heart starting to speed up and my muscles starting to twitch a little. I wasn't sure exactly what that stuff was, but it was definitely doing the trick, I was wide-awake and feeling full of energy. I just hoped I didn't crash too hard when I came down.

  I stretched a little more, I was still sore, but with the rush going through my blood, I really didn't care.

  One of the men who I had noticed riding with Riggs all day came up to me then.

  "Ah good, you're ready. I was just coming to get you."

  I nodded, "Let's get this done," I said.

  I blinked in surprise at what I saw; someone had set up a crude boxing ring, complete with four corners. There were poles set in each of the corners and two sets of ropes enclosed it. Size wise, it looked a little larger than a regulation boxing ring, but I was still rather surprised. I looked over at Atsida and the other man who were both accompanying me.

  "Is this traditional?" I asked.

  They both nodded.

  "What are the rules?"

  "There are no rules," the other man said.

  "None?"

  "You each get a knife, and you can only wear trousers, other than that, no."

  "Huh," I said and looked over the ground. It was fairly flat, someone had removed all the rocks, brush, and swept away all of the loose dirt.

  "When's it over?"

  "When there is a winner of course."

  "Sounds easy enough," I shrugged.

  Atsida spoke up then, "Do not be fooled, Paul. He will be trying to kill you."

  "Of course he will," I said and started to strip down to just my pants.

  I heard Riggs' voice call out as I sat down to undo my boots.

  "Tse has claimed that Paul has called him a coward. He has challenged Paul to a fight for his honor. Both men have agreed to this contest."

  I got up slowly, and carefully. My legs were no longer sore and I felt ready to run a four-minute mile. But I didn't want anyone else to know that, especially not Tse.

  "Enter the ring!" Riggs called out.

  I carefully climbed between the two ropes, and then slowly stood up straight in my corner.

  "Your knife," Atsida said and handed me one of the knives I had bought way back in Havsue. I shook my head, I didn't like knife fights, somebody usually ended up dead at one. Knife fights also ended way too fast for the kind of lesson I was hoping to teach here.

  I looked across the ring at Tsu. He had his knife in his right hand; it was a pretty big one too. He was smiling at me and making little jabbing motions with it. I just shook my head and sighed. Riggs didn't want me to kill him; I didn't want to kill him.

  "Coyote, do you want him dead?" I asked and received an instant impression that even Coyote didn't want him dead."

  "What did you say?" the other man said looking a little concerned at me, while Atsida didn't even blink.

  "Well, time to go big, or go home," I sighed and handed Atsida back my knife. "I won't be needing that."

  I turned back to face Tse, and noticed that Riggs, as well as many in the crowd looked surprised.

  "I don't need a knife to fight the likes of him," I called out.

  Tse's face got ugly and I think he might have snarled, but I couldn't hear it over the gasp of the crowd as Riggs simply said "Fight!"

  I walked cautiously and slowly towards the center of the ring, still making it look like I was hurting from all the running I had been forced to do today.

  Tse surprised me in that he didn't run straight at me and attack. He approached slowly, but he was smiling. He obviously thought that he had this in the bag.

  "Afraid of knives?" he laughed and waved his in front of my face.

  I grabbed his wrist in a move that was a lot faster than he expected and kicked him in the balls. Then I kicked him a second time in the stomach with the same foot without it touching the ground. Letting go of him as he staggered back.

  "No," I said loudly. "I'm just not afraid of you."

  I backed away from him, and gave him time to recover as I stretched my neck, tilting my head side to side, and then getting my hands up into a fighting stance, I started to 'dance'.

  There are a lot of different fighting styles out there, and I had studied a lot of them, starting when I first got into the martial arts after having the shit kicked out of me by a kid half my size in junior high school. In the ring, there were a lot of people who just liked to plant themselves and only move as necessary.

  Me? I was a dancer. I liked to move, I liked footwork, maybe it was because I'd seen everything on Bruce Lee I could find, and maybe it was because a young Cassius Clay had been so devastating by using it. But it was my way of trying to gain control of the fight, and I rarely planted until I felt I had that control. Then I'd go all Chuck Norris or Mike Tyson on your ass, depending if I was going to use legs or hands.

  As soon as Tse managed to unbend himself he came at me, screaming. Oh yeah, he was pissed, but he wasn't pissed en
ough to do anything stupid, like wave the knife around or take wild swings at me, like you see in the movies. That stuff may look good on film, but it gets you seriously in trouble if you try it in a real fight.

  He kept leading with the knife, taking short lunges with it, almost like he was fencing. He had good footwork, and he was fast, but I knew all about fast, and with the tsurupe running through my veins, I was blindingly fast now.

  He lunged, point leading, but keeping it close enough to his body that I couldn't easily grab his wrist again. I faked a right jab at his head as I skipped left and as the knife came up to try and catch my arm, I side-kicked him in the back of the knee, then side-kicked him in the ass, causing him to stumble forward and almost drop the knife.

  He quickly got his balance back, and turned to come after me again. I probably shouldn't do that trick again, as he came back slower this time, but he was still point leading with the knife. Effectively it was his only weapon, his left hand was simply being held out for balance.

  This time when he closed, he didn't lunge; instead he squared off against me, and started with short jabs, trying to get me to commit to something as he played a more defensive game.

  I took my time, he was holding a big ass knife after all, and he only had to get lucky once to really mess me up. I took a few jabs with my right as well as I circled him clockwise forcing him to have to keep turning to his right to face me. I was fighting him in a lefty stance, odds were good he wasn't used to it, few people were.

  "Fight me!" He yelled and took another jab with the knife as I suddenly took a step forward and switched stances; I slapped the knife wide with my left and came up under his chin with a right uppercut.

  He hit me with his left as I hit him a second time in the ribs, then he hit me again, in the side of the head, as I hit him a third time. I was trying to wrap his right arm up with my left, so I could stay inside of the knife as I punched him in the body two more times, as hard as I could. The faster I made his ribs sore, the sooner he'd wear out. It was why many boxers 'worked the body' before attacking the head.

  If you can't breathe, you can't fight.

  He grabbed my hair and tried to pull my head down, but a year of flying with a five-pound weight on my head had given me rather strong neck muscles. I was also more worried about the knife, as he was trying to stab me in the back with it now, while trying to knee my in the crotch at the same time.

  So I hit him one more time and pushed him away as I twisted away from the knife. I could feel a burning like sensation as he cut me across the back, but it didn't feel deep and it was on my left side, so I'd survive.

  Tse stumbled back and spit out a couple teeth and a lot of blood. He was panting rather hard now, and I could see he was finally starting to get angry.

  Then he did something I didn't expect, he shifted the knife to his left hand and charged suddenly. If I let him grapple with me now, he'd just start sticking me with the knife. So I reached out my with my left hand and lowered my shoulder, telegraphing that I was going to dodge into his right, then at the last moment I shuffled straight back.

  He fell for it, pivoting to his right and thrusting with the knife, which just missed me as I dropped my left arm and grabbing his wrist with my left hand I hit the inside of his elbow hard with the knife edge of my right hand and forced the knife back at him.

  He had no choice but to drop the blade or I would bury it in him as I pushed against him hard with all of my weight.

  Stepping back as he dropped he used the momentum of my push to turn back towards me, his right fist coming in hard at my head in a haymaker. I ducked down and his fist glanced off the top of my head. It hurt, but it didn't hurt as much as it could have as I came back up and unloaded a left-right-left combo into his now unprotected right side.

  He backed off and now I planted myself, standing on top of the knife. He tried to kick me, starting first with simple snap kicks, which I leg blocked, then moved to a couple of roundhouse kicks that I also leg blocked. Now that he no longer had the knife, he suddenly realized he had other limbs he could attack with.

  But I could see why he was jealous of the training I had been giving the others. He was unimaginative. He started trying simple punch-kick-punch combos after that. I dodged most of the punches, blocked or redirected the ones I couldn't. I let him punch himself out for a minute then I jumped in and unloaded a left roundhouse punch, followed by a right, then another left, then an uppercut that staggered him back enough that I was able to do a spinning back kick to his gut and send him flying back several feet where he landed on his ass.

  "You done?" I asked him.

  I'll give him this, he got back up, and I let him. I even gave him the chance to get his guard up again, then I skipped in and used his face as a punching bag, until his eyes got a little glazed and I just pushed his shoulders back while sweeping his foot and he fell down again.

  I looked over at Riggs, "I don't want to kill him, he's lost. I'm satisfied."

  "No!" Tse gasped, "I will finish you!"

  "You. Lost." I said and turning my back on him, I walked away, purposefully walking past the knife as I did so. I wanted him to see the knife lying there, and I wanted him to do what all cowards do, go for a cheap shot in the back.

  He did too, I heard him scramble to his feet, and run forward, I counted the steps, he paused and scooped up the knife then I left him take another two as I jumped to the side and turned.

  "Coward," I said and dodging his now clumsy thrust I grabbed the arm with the knife in it, twisted it around behind his until he cried out in pain and dropped it. I caught the knife and stuck the blade down inside the back of his pants, being careful not to cut him, and then sliced the back of his pants open, causing them to fall down around his feet, tripping him up and causing him to land flat on his face.

  I heard several people start to snicker as he tried to scramble to his feet, his pants tripping him up again, until he realized what had happened, and then grabbing them with his hands he pulled them up and stood. He was pretty bloody now and not at all steady on his feet.

  "I'm not done with you!" He yelled.

  "I'm not fighting you with your ass hanging out like that," I said and nodded to his pants. "I'm just not that into you."

  More people snickered and several started to laugh, and after a moment, he realized not only was I standing there with a knife in my hand, but people were laughing at him.

  "Kill him!" He screamed, turning back towards where his friends were standing outside the ring.

  They looked at me, and then they looked at Riggs. Raising their hands to show that they weren't holding anything, they all turned their backs on Tse and walked away.

  He spun back to face me, "You! You! My father will punish you!"

  "Your father isn't here," Riggs said walking up to the two of us.

  I turned and saluted Riggs, and presented the knife to him, hilt first.

  "May I continue about my duties, Major?" I asked.

  "Of course, Lieutenant," he said and returned the salute as he took the knife.

  "Somebody give Paul here back his things, and escort him out of the camp."

  "But he's a slave!" Tse said, a couple of the older men now coming over to him, and starting to drag him off.

  "Only free men get to fight challenges, you know that," Riggs said with a smile, "Paul is no longer a slave, you freed him when you summoned him to the ring. Now," he turned to the two others dragging Tse off as he weakly struggled against them, "confine Tse to his tent, for his own safety of course."

  They nodded and I turned and headed back to where Atsida was standing. He not only had my clothes, but he also had my knives and my two pistols. As I got dressed I noticed everyone was looking around, towards the outside of the camp. It took me a moment, but then I heard it.

  The yipping and crying of coyotes.

  I looked at Atsida who was just shaking his head.

  "Now I'm even happier not to be you," was all he said.

>   - 4 -

  I got about a mile from camp and then I came down.

  Hard.

  I collapsed down onto the ground, and took a long drink from my canteen, barely able to hold it up to my lips; I was trembling so hard with fatigue. I could feel the muscles in my legs cramping up, the pain was tremendous. I hate leg cramps, they're the worst, and my right calf suddenly turned into a solid rock, making me gasp in agony. Even my back was on fire, from the cut that Tse had given me.

  "You know drugs are bad for you, right?" I heard Coyote say.

  "Being dead is worse," I gasped. "Is there anything you can do for this?"

  "Sorry, not my speed," Coyote said, then gave one of those little bark-like laughs of his.

  "You need a better writer for your material," I gasped through clenched teeth.

  "The best puns are always the bad ones."

  "So claim the people who can't come up with any good ones," I grumbled, and reaching down with shaking hands, I started to work on my calf muscle. The sun had already gone down, and it was starting to get dark. Pretty soon it would start to get cold out as well.

  "How are the girls doing?" I asked.

  "Oh, they're both doing fine; they found a good place to hole up for the night."

  "Well that's a relief," I said and then winced a little as I tried to straighten my leg out and grab my toes, to work out the cramp.

  "So, aren't you going to ask?"

  "Ask what?" I slowly rolled onto my knees and digging the toes of my right foot into the ground, I continued to try and work the muscle loose.

  "Where they are of course."

  I grunted as the muscle finally started to relax a little.

  "Wherever they are, I'm sure it's too far away for me to get to, tonight."

  "Still, you should try."

  I sighed, "Coyote, I figure I can walk a couple hundred yards at best, and maybe crawl another if I'm careful. I need a place to rest, and I need some food. Neither of which seems to be available."

  "Aw come on, you could at least try."