It's not every day that you wake up on the top of a cliff who knows where to find a bunch of teenage girls fighting a monster that looks like something out of some bad old tv show, but, you know, deadlier. But hey, as mornings go, I've had worse. A LOT worse. And then one of the girls got her arm chopped off and it GREW BACK. This day was steadily creeping towards the top of my "weirdest ever" list, and for those of you who ask, yes it exists. I just don't remember where. Anyway, for anyone who's wondering, I'm Harry Dresden, professional wizard, Winter Knight, etcetera etcetera, so on and so forth. The most important thing you need to know about me other than my rugged good looks? I make things blow up, and I do it very well. So let's get back to the situation. Scary monster is attacking girls and ripping them apart. Though, admittedly, they did appear to be quite literally putting themselves back together, the gentleman in me simply couldn't ignore it, no matter how much my bladder and brain complained. So, a snap of my fingers, a wave of my metaphorical wand, and a quick whisper of 'fuego', and a fair sized fireball fell on the creature below. And officially succeeded in pissing it off.
Clare faced the Awakened Being, the last in the hunting party capable so much as standing. She readied her claymore, but as she stepped forward to engage the beast, she saw a flash of black from the top of the cliff. Glancing up, she saw a middle-aged man in foreign clothes, the beginnings of a beard on his chin, his posture and size giving the impression that he was quite fit. She could not allow herself to be so distracted, not now. She turned her eyes back to the Awakened Being, and thus never saw the ball of flame rocketing downward from the hand of the stranger. She did, however, feel the air around her grow incredibly hot, and then felt more than hear a tremendous blast as she was thrown back. Catching herself, she saw the beast turn to face the foreigner, a look of hate in its eyes. It began to scale the cliff, hoping to remove the fool's bowels from his gut.
It's kinda distressing to say that this situation wasn't uncommon for me. Giant unknown monster barreling down on me? Check. Magic suddenly acting weird right when I need it most? Check. Realizing I don't have a SINGLE piece of gear that would be of any use to me? Check. And so, from my wealth of experience, I determined that the best course of action in the situation would be to run like hell. And that's exactly what I did, or rather what I would have done if the Thing from the Black Lagoon (plus a couple of sets of arms) hadn't been so damned fast. The second I turned to begin my sprint, it was already up the cliff, and before I'd gone a half dozen steps, it was in front of me. I swore I heard the damn thing chuckle. On to plan B- make a plan C. So plan C…
Clare was halfway up the cliff when suddenly the world seemed to slow slightly. She felt the warmth drain from her body as the cliff was suddenly coated in ice. Snow began to fall as the water in the air flash-froze. With a great leap, she cleared the top of the cliff, ready to fight the beast that was surely devouring the remains of that foreigner. What she encountered instead nearly led her to drop her blade in shock. There stood the foreigner, untouched, while the Awakened Being was frozen in a foot of solid ice. The man ran a hand through his motley hair and sighed. Walking up to the beast, he gave it what sounded like a solid kick. With an utterance in a strange tongue, the Awakened Being shattered into a thousand pieces as some great force went out from the stranger. So great was it that many of the trees behind the Awakened Being bent over, their heights almost touching the hard ground of the clifftop. The man turned from his victory and started at the sight of her. However he recovered quickly and said the last thing she ever expected to hear:
"Hi, I'm Harry Dresden. That's a big sword."
And with that he collapsed on the ground, unconscious.