A Hunter By Any Name

by Sheila Wireman

  That was when an owl screeched a warning near me that sent chills over my skin. I heard the change in the night sounds. The comforting chirp of the crickets turned shriller. A breeze came up and washed over the plants and animals. I felt its warning that evil was approaching and paid attention to it.

  Seconds later an ostentatious large four wheeled drive blue truck with oversized tires pulled into the overgrown drive of the abandoned barn. The wizard that was the focus of my hunt got out. He looked around and I instinctively held my breath as he inspected the surroundings of the barn. I knew I had been careful and he would not find a trace of me but I was so close to the end of my hunt that I was filled with fear that one small slip would have disastrous consequences.

  The wizard found nothing alarming and strode confidently toward the barn. He swept his whole arm grandly in front of him three times as he walked toward the barn, disarming his spells. At the end of the last sweep of his arm he flicked his wrist and the barn door swung open with deep moan in protest from the hinges. There was a loud dull thump as the door hit the side of the barn with force. As he disappeared through the barn doors out of my sight I saw a soft glow of candle light immediately light up the vertical gaps between the barn boards that made up the outside of the barn.

  The ritual had begun.

  I crept from my hiding spot slowly and carefully as to not disturb the earth’s night time rhythm. But the thorns of the raspberry bushes demanded a price for hiding me and that price was my flesh as they gouged deep scratches in my legs and arms. I payed the price without protest and kept moving silently toward the barn. As I glided toward the barn I drew my blade out of its leather holder. I slipped the holder off my neck and let it slide down my arm dropping it on the ground indiscriminately as I stalked toward the barn. I did not want it to hinder or tangle up in anything during the fierce battle that was imminent. I would either be successful and able to come back for it or have no need for it in the future.

  I paused outside the door and listened to the wizard chanting inside the barn. When I heard a muffled cry coming from inside the barn I knew the wizard was using a knife to draw Stephanie’s blood. It took all of my discipline to remain frozen outside the barn door. But it had to be done. I had to allow him to cause her pain. I had to allow that pain to draw out the lust for power this wizard felt. That lust would impassion his focus on his spell.

  Only when he was truly focused on his spell would I have a chance of defeating this wizard. He was vastly more powerful than I could ever hope to be. No, ever wanted to be. But that wouldn’t stop me from trying to kill him. He needed to be stopped and the only way he would stop is if he was dead. If I had to die in order to stop him then I would. But I hoped beyond all hope that The Goddess saw fit to let me live.

  I glanced in the door of the barn for a split second and then ducked behind the door with my back against it to process what I had seen. The Wizard was painting a pentagram on the floor with the girl’s blood. He was bent over on the floor facing me and could have easily seen me. However, his face was hardened with concentration on the ritual he was performing. I could hear his rhythmic chanting from where I stood.

  I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and centered my thoughts on the energy in my body. I felt my energy flowing through my body and focused on its power. I then opened my eyes, turned and walked through the door with my sword raised ready for combat.

  I made it half way across the barn before the wizard even noticed me. I made it another quarter of the way before his eyes focused on me. He seemed unable to comprehend that there was a hunter coming for him. His disbelief instantly turned to anger when he finally accepted my presence He stood up from where he had been crouching next to the floor.

  Between one of my foot falls and the next I felt the wizard gather his energy around him and focus it on me. When I felt his energy I would like to say it didn’t affect me. I would like to say that the little girl in me didn’t curl up in a ball and wet herself. But well you know…one shouldn’t lie…especially one as close to death as I am right now.

  Instead, I stole a glance at Stephanie. It only took a fraction of a second to see her fear. Her fear reminded me of my fear when I had been in her position many years ago. Rage boiled up in me and I turned my attention back to the wizard just in the nick of time. He had already gathered a spell and was releasing it from his outstretched fingers in my direction.

  I barely had enough time to swing my spelled sword to block the oncoming spell. I sighed at the newb mistake I had made and vowed not to repeat it again during this battle. I drew up my energy and used it to focus my concentration on the wizard. I took in his body, the stance he was in and waited for him to start to move again.

  I didn’t have to wait long and I saw the slight shift in his weight onto his right foot that meant he would be stepping toward me with his left foot. I drew back my sword and prepared to counter the attack that was coming. As I had predicted he stepped forward with his left foot as he drew the sword that I could not see but years of experience told me he had. He then stepped with his right foot as he swung the sword down at me.

  He had more height, weight, and power in his swing than I did. But I had years of experience and agility on my side. I swung my blade with greater speed that caused his blade swing to deflect. The power behind his swing carried the blade accost his body and back behind him under his left arm. I instantly followed up with a quick stab with my blade before I scurried away from him. I crouched slightly with my knees bent and my blade at the ready and waited for him to make the next move.

  It took a split second for him to register what I had done and to process the pain he felt in his side. Unfortunately, I had not had enough time to do more than nick him a little with my blade. It was a well-placed nick and would cause him pain when he swung his blade again with his right hand. He smiled a sadistic twisted smile and I knew he was thinking of how much he would enjoy killing me. I remained emotionless. I was using all my energy focusing on his body waiting for the subtle clues that would tell me what he was going to do next.

  He swung his blade back around to the right side of his body with ease and cocky arrogance not giving away any hint of pain my nick caused him. He took up a defensive stance similar to mine. I simply waited knowing the defensive stance was a rouse and a second later my belief was vindicated as he sprinted across the barn floor twirling his blade trying to confuse and distract me. I waited the fraction of the second it took for him to get to me. When he was taking the final step that would bring him to me it was with his left foot. I drew my blade into the defensive position to meet his left handed attack and deflected his blade once more. I used the moment of my swing to carry me under his left arm and behind him as his blade stabbed at the air where I had been moments before.

  I traveled a safe distance away and was able to turn and face him in a defensive stance before he collected himself and turned toward me. He had expected me to stab at him again and had been prepared for my attack. However, I was too focused on the fight to make a newb mistake like that. I remained emotionless and waited.

  The wizard face gave away all his emotions. He felt I was beneath him. I was a skinny weak female that was running away from him rather than standing my ground and having a real sword fight like a man. He was growing bored with the fight and with my luck at having evaded him thus far.

  Now the real fight would start. Now he was serious about killing me. I was no longer a play thing to him.

  He transferred his sword to his right hand and drew up his power into his left hand. He stalked across the barn floor at me and when he was only two steps away he set the spell he had gathered in his left hand at me while he swung his sword at me with his right hand.

  There was no way I would be able to stop both the sword and the spell. In that split second I had a choice to make. Which did I think I could survive? The spell or the blade. I chose the blade and swung my sword to block the spell. I ducked and moved with the blade so the mome
ntum from the swing would be countered by my movement. I felt the blade slice my left shoulder and winced from the pain. I did not let the pain effect my concentration as I drug my blade across his body when I fled past him. My blade was still raised from countering the spell and I had ducked to miss most of the force of his blade swing so my blade made a line from the center of his chest down under his left arm and around his side.

  This time he let the pain distract him and he remained motionless for a few seconds. Or maybe it was the audacity I had to cut him, a powerful wizard. Either way we will never know because those few seconds were all I needed. I let my power drain from my body into my spelled sword. The sword hummed with the power I fed it and I planted my right foot slightly back behind me and raised my blade. I pushed off with all the power I could muster and stepped into my turn and converted the force of my turn into speed for my sword. I swung my blade not at his neck but through it and out the other side.

  That was the key to cutting off a head. Most people would probably guess it was about the force of the swing and would have aimed forcefully for the neck itself. But no, it was all about the speed and you had to aim through the neck to the other side to get a good cut. Granted it helps if you have a spelled sword that converts power into sharpness to slice through bone. Yes, I know it is sadistic that I know these things. But I do use my sadism for good.

  My knowledge and effort was rewarded by a dull thump as his head hit the rough wood of the barn floor

  It always seems like it takes forever for the body to follow the head and crumple to the floor but in reality I suppose it is only a second. Maybe even a fraction of a second. But there is just something so creepy about a body standing without a head that makes time move in slow-mo. Yes, I know once again is sadistic that I have enough experience with headless bodies standing on their own to have an opinion on this. We already covered my sadism. Can we move on now?

  Stephanie let out a whimper and the noise broke the trance the headless body held on me. I looked over at her. Her hands and feet were bound and then tied to each other so that she was sitting in a crouched position with her arms around her knees. She also had a hanky tied around her face holding a sock in her mouth. There was blood leaking from her arm and a large stain was on the barn floor where her blood had been soaking into the dried wood.

  I reached down and grabbed the knife out of the sheaf strapped to my leg and strode toward her. She screamed but thankfully the sock muffled the noise. I imagine that it would have otherwise been a very high pitched loud scream. No one and I mean NO ONE can scream as well as a teen girl. Too bad that trait didn’t prevent Wizards from targeting them.

  As I reached her I couldn’t help but plead with her to stop screaming. “Could you please stop screaming? I am just going to cut you free. I would really appreciate not having to listen to you screaming. I will cut you free either way but it has been a really long day so do you think you could please stop?” The last please may have come out a little winey but I will never admit it.

  I set my sword down on the barn floor and felt a sense of loss not having it in my hand or in a strapped to me in its leather holder. Stephanie thankfully did stop screaming but she did whimper a lot when I reached up with my knife and cut the hankie after I stretched it away from her cheek. She spit out the sock. I bit the knife blade in between my teeth before grabbing the sock.

  This act earned a wide eyed look of fear from Stephanie but thankfully no screams. Not that I cared. There was no way I could sheath my knife bent down on the floor next to her. There was most certainly no way in hell I was going to set down both of my weapons.

  The sock was wet from spit when I grabbed it and I cringed. I hate touching other people’s bodily fluids. But hey at least it wasn’t blood or pee. I grabbed the sock and pressed it against the slice on her arm. I then took the hankie and tied it around her arm to keep pressure on the wound and hopefully slow the bleeding. I tied it in place. Then cut her arms and legs free, stood up and put the knife in its sheath. Then I reached down and picked up the sword with my right hand. I moved around Stephanie so that she was on my left side.

  Stephanie had remained silent since I had cut her gag off her and she did not try to get up or move. I sighed and asked, “Are you going to come with me or staying here? I can send someone to get you if you want.”

  Stephanie looked at me and then glanced at the dead body of the wizard. The sight of the body must have made her decide I wasn’t so bad because she started getting up. I had to help her to her feet with my left hand which caused the cut in my shoulder to send a sharp pain in protest. However, it wasn’t bleeding too badly and it could wait a little while.

  I was just thankful I didn’t have to carry Stephanie. Because no matter what she had decided there was no way I was leaving her here. I just wanted to give her the choice in the hope that she would decide to come with me willingly. It is so much easier when they come willingly.

  Chapter 17

  I was still a little jumpy and had a bad feeling about the whole situation. If felt like the fight was not over yet so I was especially thankful that Stephanie was able to walk mostly on her own. After the first few steps she stopped leaning on me with most of her weight. Granted, she might have been motivated by the blood that leaking out of the slice on my shoulder and starting to run down my arm. By the time we made it to the barn door she was mostly walking on her own. She still held my arm but I think she just wanted to touch me for the comfort.

  It was a good thing that the light from the candles in the barn was dim so that when we exited the barn my eyes did not have to adjust to the moon lit night. Because of this I was able to see the two figures that stood next to the wizards red truck. I pushed Stephanie behind me and raised my sword as I assumed a defensive stance.

  The men standing next to the truck held their hands up in a surrender motion. It was my two old friends that seemed to have been trailing my during my entire stay in this town. The brown haired man from the Goodwill store and the blond man from the grocery store.

  The brown haired man had my sword’s leather holder casually hung around his neck and arm. I eyed the sheath and raised an eyebrow in question as I met his gaze. He grabbed the sheath and took it off and held it out to me as he spoke. “We just want to talk and we also came to clean up the mess. We don’t want to draw any attention to ourselves and this mess would certainly do that if the authorities found it.”

  I hesitated and assessed them. The blond haired man had a weapon strapped to his back. The placement on his back made me think it was not a sword but I couldn’t be for sure. I did not see any weapons on the brown haired man. But I experience told me that not all weapons could be seen. However, he did have the leather pouch that I had obtained from the wizard I had killed while visiting Old Faithful around his neck. This meant they had found the abandoned warehouse that I had been sleeping in. I wondered and to be honest hoped, that they had found it after I had abandoned it and not before. I resigned myself to never knowing.

  I could not decide what to do. If I fought them chances are myself or Stephanie would be hurt, well in my case hurt worse. If I surrendered to them or let my guard down there was the possibility they were deceiving me and we would die.

  I looked to The Goddess for guidance and examined the effect the men had on the nature around them. They seemed to not be disturbing the trees, bushes, grass, insects or even the night creatures that rustled in the darkness surrounded the barn so I sighed with resignation as I decided to trust in The Goddess that they meant me no harm.

  I stood up and let my left hand reach back behind me to grab Stephanie’s arm. I did keep my sword out away from my body ready to swing if needed. I also kept Stephanie slightly behind me. When we had walked most of the way toward them I stopped us and let go of Stephanie. I held out my hand and looked at the brown haired man, waiting for him to meet us the rest of the way and give me the sheath to my sword.

  He shrugged and stepped forward. Thankfully
the bond man stayed where he was like I had hoped. This way I would at least have a fraction of second to prepare before I had to fight them both. If it came to that. When the brown haired man handed me my sheath I hung it around Stephanie’s neck with barely a glance in her direction. Thankfully she helped me when she realized my intention. Yes, she was a smart girl and she seemed to be coming out of her shock or at the very least working through it. She was going to be one of the survivors. But I still grabbed her arm in a protective manor.

  “Well thanks for cleaning up the mess.” I said with a nod. “We are going to be going now.” I started to push Stephanie around the opposite side of the truck that they stood on. This would mean that we would have to walk around the truck and circle back around to head in the correct direction of my car but I felt that was the path with the least amount of danger.

  The brown haired man chuckled. “Don’t you even want to ask us our names?”

  “No. I’m good. I don’t expect to see you again so no names are fine with me.” I said as I pushed Stephanie back with my hip. For some reason the girl just didn’t seem to be getting the hint to move.

  “I have a question.” Stephanie said startling me. Yes, this girl had audacity I will give her that. “Are you devil worshipers too?”

  “No!” The blond man barked out. “We do not worship the devil. Neither did the wizard who attacked you. We are part of an organization that fights wizards like that.”

  I felt Stephanie flinch at the sharp tone he had taken with her. Blondie was irritating me. Once again I felt the Queen of Hearts was once again jumping up and down in my head yelling “Off with his head!” I tightened the grip on my sword desperately wanting to give into her chants.

  The Goddess knew my thoughts and the night became deadly still around us in response to her irritation at my thoughts. The crickets became silent, no rustle of small animals could be heard and the wind remained eerily calm.