Two Slayers— One Heart (Version 3.0): Part 54
Elaine:
Maybe I'm crazy, but I felt good going into Rose's school to help clean up the monsters that had infested it, good and confident. Medusas, sure, bad karma. And a minotaur could run over our dogma, maybe— but it still felt good to go in there with an eye towards making people safe, and avenging the poor janitor who'd died.
So I followed Rose and Bree up to the big double doors, one now hanging open on one badly bent hinge with a comparatively light heart. Oh, I was tense— but it was ready-tense, not worried-tense.
Rose stopped us all five feet or so from the doors, spoke briefly in Bree's ear, then got down on all fours and crept forward with a grace that shouldn't have been possible in such a position. Bree moved behind Rose, sliding one foot along the pavement, pressed against one of Rose's feet. When Rose stopped, Bree stopped too, and as Rose turned to sit on the ground, facing back at us, Bree knelt a couple of feet back from Rose, and grabbed Rose's ankles.
Rose counted softly, "One, two, three," and simply fell backwards, her head going just past the opening of the doorway, on three. After a little more than a second, she hissed sharply between her teeth— and Bree pulled Rose clear of the door by the ankles.
I'd never have thought of that! It gave Rose a quick look down the hallway from a level an enemy wouldn't be looking at (who looked for a person to look into a guarded area from ground level?), and by having Bree pull her back, got Rose clear without her having to sit up or creep back, both of which would be slower.
"Bless you Brian Daley wherever you are!" Rose said as she stood. At out puzzled looks— none of us understood what she was talking about— she grinned and said, "Author who wrote some Star Wars novels featuring Han Solo and Chewbacca— I swiped that little trick from one of his books— Han Solo at Star's End, in fact.
"Hall's empty. Let's do this. Anybody got something I can use as a blindfold? I do not want to get surprised into opening my eyes."
Sh'rin had a bandanna in her hip pocket that she handed to Rose, who grinned, rolled it quickly, and fisted it. "I want one look in there before I put it on, thanks, Sh'rin."
We moved down the hall, me hefting the short sword I'd selected for this job (short weapons working better with the Capoeira that I'd learned), Sunrise matching me in both weapon and heft. Sh'rin drew the Guardian's blade, left the wooden sheath propped against a door one away from our target door, and Bree shifted her grip on her giant axe, gripping near the bottom of handle and shouldering the weapon. Rose carried the Scythe comfortably, and crept to the also-hanging-by-one-hinge door of the woodshop. She looked through a crack between the dangling door and the frame, then backed off and let out a soft sigh of relief.
Rose held her hands up against her head, palms out, and wiggled her fingers— then smacked herself lightly in the forehead on looking at Brianne, realizing that our key player couldn't see her pantomime.
"One medusa," Rose said, so softly that we barely heard her. "Three minotaurs— we caught a break on that.
"Snake-chick has a short bow and a dagger, the bull-boys each have an axe the size of Bree's, but shorter in the handle. This won't affect their reach much— they have long arms.
"Snake-chick is to the left of the room, straight along the wall in from the door. Bulls are to the far right, looking at the pegboard rack of tools. One of the bulls— pretty small, at least for a minotaur— has a big honking necklace on. Can't see the symbol on it, but watch him— he may be a cleric of some sort. Put him down first, if you can."
Rose took a deep breath, said, "I love you guys. Every one of you. Remember that, and stay well."
She tied Sh'rin's bandanna over her eyes as a blindfold after putting Bree's hand on her belt, then stepped over and tore the door off of its hinges, flung it down the hall.
"You bags of shit should have stayed the hell out of my school!" Rose snarled as she stepped in, moving left towards the medusa. "Now you get to do detention— in hell!"
I saw the medusa draw an arrow, nock it and fire, moving so fast I couldn't warn Rose— but Rose just snapped the Scythe up in front of her face, deflected the arrow neatly— and drew a hiss of surprise from the medusa.
Then Sunrise, Sh'rin and I were headed to the other side of the room and the minotaurs. I had drag, and I noticed a bulge under the back of Sunrise's shirt, something round held against her back by her shirt, supported by the shirt's elasticized hem. I grinned, knew that it was a Frisbee-delivery-system for a protective spell like she'd used on Chantelle's birthday. Good on her, thinking like that!
Then the minotaurs charged, but they weren't able to build up enough speed for it to be a super-serious danger because of all the table tools staggered around the room.
I turned on my iPod, started Paranaue for rhythm, saw Sunrise starting to ginga already, started the basic Capoeira movement myself.
Minotaurs aren't as slow as you might expect from their size— and they may be dumb, but they have good fight instincts— or instincts that would probably serve them against non-Slayers, or even people not trained by those who trained Slayers.
Sh'rin had only just started Capoeira lessons, so she stuck with the kung-rang-do (as Xander called the combined martial art) that she'd learned from Whitey and Rose. The Minotaurs were visibly confused by Sunrise and I, and even Sh'rin, once she started fighting. (Rose explained this later; in most versions of Dungeons and Dragons, the game that had obviously informed the world these things come from, martial artists tend to not use swords. Silly world, that!)
An axe came sweeping at me at chest height, and I let the music and the beat take me into the fight.
I bent under the passage of the axe, spun up on one hand, cracked first my right foot, then my left across the minotaur's chin, going for full Slayer strength with the kicks. It grunted in surprise and staggered backwards as I dropped out of my handstand and moved back into the ginga. As I came down, I saw Rose and Bree moving to bracket the medusa. She'd dropped her bow, and had a dagger in each hand, was trying to watch both her opponents.
Then my opponent was coming at me again, bellowing in anger, and for the moment, I had no more time to watch the medusa fight.
Interlude:
These humans were mad!
It watched from the vent high on the wall, saw the five humans enter the room, two going after snake-hair, three after the three horned ones. Two of those started moving in a funny dance-like motion as they approached, and it could dimly hear the music that they moved to, saw how they moved with the beat. The third held a sword that screamed of magic, so maybe they had a chance.
The littlest human, the one with the gleaming red hair that it had seen earlier, it had blindfolded itself against the snake-hair's terrible gaze, and held a weapon that, like the one sword, screamed with magic, though a different, more combative type. But being blindfolded didn't seem to bother it! It still deflected the snake-hair's arrow, and it moved confidently, as did the human girl with it— though that one seemed blind even without a blindfold.
Blind humans fighting? They were either mad or courageous beyond anything it had ever seen.
The red-haired girl— from her, it felt rage, a controlled sort of rage that didn't frighten it, because that rage was directed against things that hurt, that killed for no reason.
It liked that kind of rage. That was good rage. It decided that, despite her no-weapons way of walking, and her use of a weapon no paladin that it had ever seen had used, that this one was a paladin.
It found itself liking the red-haired girl-human still more than before— and thinking of her as "my human."
It started back where it had come from, to get out of these tunnels and go join the fight.
It had to help its human, after all.
Elaine:
I was holding my own against my minotaur but Sh'rin and Sunrise, not having Slayer power, were having more trouble. They hadn't been hurt, but they weren't hurting their opponents much, either. I started to worry a little bit— then I heard a hissing scream from behind me, and I spun into a kick that took me airborne, cracked my minotaur across the head just below one horn, sent it staggering sideways, roaring in pain.
I landed, saw Rose behind the medusa, the Scythe buried in its back— and saw Brianne swing her axe backhanded, take the medusa's head off cleanly, send it tumbling across the room.
"Dead!" Bree cried— and Rose swept off her blindfold, tucked it in a pocket even as she jerked the Scythe free of the corpse.
They turned towards us, started our way, Rose in front. She got to where the medusa's head rested, went to kick it aside— and screamed in pain, stabbed downwards with the Scythe, held it down with both hands —
— and jerked her foot free of the three snake-hair-heads that had fastened their fangs onto her ankle and lower calf.
Rose jerked the Scythe, sent the medusa head tumbling away to rest under the edge of a work table against the wall, out of the way. She took two steps our way— then fell to the ground, unconscious and with her skin looking gray.
"Sh'rin! Sunrise!" I yelled. "Rose is down— snakebite!"
"Sh'rin, go!" Sunrise shouted. "Bree, home on my voice!"
With that, Sunrise started singing along with Paranaue, giving Bree a voice to home in on, even as Sh'rin threw a back round kick at her minotaur, added a backwards stab with the Guardian's blade for good measure, and ran to Rose, already digging in the belt pouches she wore.
Bree came our way— and the damned minotaur that Sh'rin had been fighting started after Sh'rin. I couldn't get to it, I had my hands full with my own big bull, and Bree couldn't sort out where it was in the big, slightly echo-y room.
"Bree, backpedal!" Sunrise shouted. "It's going for Rose!"
Bree backed up, but we hadn't warned her fast enough. The thing was almost to the place where Sh'rin had bent over my wild Rose, hefting its axe, ready to attack first Sh'rin, then Rose —
— and there was a flutter of wings, like bat wings, barely heard over my fighting music, as something flew through the door from the hall, and arrowed straight at the minotaur, a streak of red-gold… something.
It buzzed the minotaur, which clutched at its face and bellowed after the thing passed, turned to face it, and got buzzed again— and grabbed the other side of its face, almost smacking itself in the face with its own axe as it did so. It started reeling around, like it was horribly dizzy— and the streak of red-gold went by it again, wheeling around its head, making it turn away from Bree as she swung her axe back over her head, then down into the minotaur's skull, killing it and sending it crashing to the ground. (It missed Sh'rin and Rose— but not by much.)
I spun back into my dangerous dance, stopped just avoiding my opponent, started thinking about putting him down, knowing that Rose was as safe as she could be, for the moment.
I got mad. My Rose was hurt, and another of these things had tried to make that "dead," not just "hurt." I wasn't just mad, I was pissed!
I moved back out of the way of a horizontal slash from the thing's ax in a back handspring, and, as my body hit vertical (well after the axe had passed through that space, but before the minotaur could start its backswing), I lifted my left hand, dropped my right shoulder— and swung my legs down and around in a powerful, sweeping arc, driving with both hips and waist as my legs scythed into the minotaur's. It felt like I'd tried to foot sweep a tree trunk— but the minotaur went over hard, landed on one side and lost its axe. I rolled forward, drawing my blade as I moved, and drove it deep into the minotaur's throat.
Even as I was doing that, Sunrise was dancing around her minotaur, drawing it after her— and leaving its back exposed to Brianne, who took its head off with a great, spinning two handed axe blow.
That made three. I leaped up and ran to where Sh'rin was working on Rose, Sunrise on my heels, pulling Brianne by the hand. I shut off my iPod as I ran, and when I got to Rose's side— I froze.
Curled up protectively on Rose's chest was a tiny little dragon, red-gold in color, two and a half feet or so in length, and most of that tail. It had it's nose pressed against Rose's cheek, and it nudged her gently while I stood and stared, and let out a funny little growling peep. As I knelt next to Sh'rin, it looked up at me— and I swear, I could see worry in its eyes.
"I thought Willow said there were only four beasties in here," I said as I knelt next to Sh'rin.
"No, she said there were only four evil critters in here," Sunrise said. "So I don't think it's evil— and I'm pretty sure it won't hurt her. It saved her life, and Sh'rin's."
The red-gold streak that had assaulted the minotaur that had tried to attack Rose and Sh'rin, right. (So I was slow— I was worried about Rose!) It had saved them— and I could tell from its demeanor and its distressed, peeping growls that it was worried about Rose. So it was all right in my book.
"Sh'rin, is Rose—" I started.
"She will be well," Sh'rin said, and gave me a quick smile. "She is responding to the poison cure, and needs only rest, and to give the cure time to work."
The little dragon had turned to listen— seriously, it had!— and now it peeped in a rising way that made it sound like it was asking a question.
"Yes, little wing, she will be well," Sh'rin said. "She will be sick and sleepy for a little while— but she will be fine. I promise."
"Okay, let's get her out of here," I said. "Um, little dragon? I need to pick Rose up. Okay? No biting, please?"
It looked up at me, opened its mouth a little in what I thought was a grin— and stood. It walked off of Rose, walked down to her waist on the floor— and wormed its way up under her shirt where it had come untucked, curled up into a neat little ball just below her breasts.
"This is one time," Bree said slowly, straightening from picking up the Scythe from where Rose had dropped it, "that I'm perfectly happy to be going to the Giles Academy, and not this high school. This place is just… too weird!
"Are you saying that a baby dragon saved Rose, and now it wants to go home with us?"
I scooped up Rose and her little passenger, and said, "Looks like it, Bree. And I don't mind— it's welcome so far as I'm concerned."
We left the room, went back down the hall and outside (Sh'rin stopped to grab her sword's sheath on the way). Cops had filled the faculty parking lot, cops and teachers and hangers-on, but we didn't call any attention to ourselves, didn't "get in any faces," as Wil had put it, and the only people who noticed us were Buffy, Willow, Whitey, Miss Heller, the other teacher, and that assistant principal guy.
Buffy went around the "officially there" people, ran to us, with all the others not far behind (made me feel good about the teacher I didn't know and the Assistant Principal), and Buffy skidded to a stop and asked, "How bad is it!"
"Rose will be fine," Sh'rin said. "It is snakebite, from snake-hair of the medusa-thing— I have given her the cure, and she responds well. Now… we need only wait. She will sleep, and she will feel ill for a short while— but she will be fine."
"What… what's under her shirt?" Willow asked.
"Um, a friend," I said, starting for the SUV, taking the same broad path the others had used to get here to avoid being noticed. "Seriously, it saved her life and Sh'rin's, went after a minotaur that was threatening them."
"What sort of a fr—holy crap!" Willow said, as the little dragon poked its head out of the V-neck of Rose's shirt and looked around curiously at all the new people.
"We killed the medusa and three minotaurs," Sunrise said quickly. "And you said there were four evil things in there, Wil— I think it's harmless. And it did protect Rose and Sh'rin."
"It's a pseudo dragon," said the Assistant Principal— Dunlap, that was his name. He sounded like he was either stoned… or wished he was. "I'm looking at a pseudo dragon that's under one of my student's shirt.
"What in the hell have I fallen into?"
"You recognize that critter?" Whitey said, sounding interested.
"Pseudo dragon," Mr. Dunlap said. "Highly prized as wizards' familiars. Good by nature, and probably won't get a lot bigger than it is now. Has a poison stinger on its tail, can knock you for a loop, even knock you out for several hours."
"That's what it hit the minotaur with," Sunrise said. "Probably didn't work as well as normal because the minotaur was so big— but it did dope it up, make it so Bree could finish it off before it hurt Rose or Sh'rin."
The pseudo dragon had been looking back and forth among the people as they talked, and listening with its head cocked.
"How the blue blazes did a pseudo dragon, a bunch of minotaurs and a medusa get into my school?" Mr. Dunlap asked as we reached the SUV. "I've not played D and D in years, though I run the gaming club here at school. So this can't be my fault— can it?"
I slid inside, moving slowly so as not to scare Rose's passenger, and listened as Whitey tried to explain.
"Mr. Dunlap, something is bringing these things into your school," Whitey said. "We don't know what, not yet— but we'll find out, and we'll stop it. As for the hundred or so other questions you have to have— you and Mr. McLean both— I'll answer them. Why don't you two come by our house— you can get the address from Rose's records, I'm sure, or Lydia can tell you where it is— after things are calmed down here."
"I'll do that," Mr. Dunlap said. "I'll want to check on Rose, anyway. Who'd have thought… one of my biggest problem children turns out to be our best protector."
"Uh, no offense, please," Mr. McLean said, "but I think I'm going to pass. I don't understand this, and I don't think I can. So I'm just going to go home and… and start forgetting that I even came in today."
"You do that, Hank," Mr. Dunlap said. "I'll cover for you."
"Thanks, Thomas." McLean looked around at us all, said softly, "I'm sorry I can't deal— you deserve more than just a thank you… but I'm too old to adapt to something this weird. So… thank you."
He turned and walked off for his car, and we let him go. Willow made a little gesture, and I saw a little flare from his car's radio antenna. She saw me noticing, said, softly, "I'll be able to find him later, now— and I'll help him forget this. He needs to forget, I think."
Mr. Dunlap leaned in, then, took a good look at Rose and her passenger, then looked up at me and said, "You take care of her. I'm starting to admire her— so you take care of her."
He moved back, everyone else piled in, and we went home, where I carried Rose up to her room and put her to bed. Once her little friend climbed out of her shirt, I undressed Rose down to just panties, and tucked her in. The pseudo dragon watched me do this— then curled up on the pillow next to Rose's head and rested its head on her shoulder.
No one had suggested that Sunrise and I go to school today. Whitey had even told Brianne that she could have the day off, but she'd refused, saying only, "No, I dig classes— but I think I will skip PE today, I've had my exercise."
"I'll clear it with Vincent and Nancy," Whitey had told her. "Good job, young lady.
"In fact, you all did a damned good job."
I grinned at that memory, then sat down next to Rose's bed, grabbed a book of hers to read while I sat, and waited for her to wake up.
