My Chapter – Unfortunate Encounter –

She considered the flower for a moment.

It was one of those flowers which seemed to grow everywhere but where you wanted them to. A weed, some would call it. She watched it, head tilted to a side.

Anywhere else, she would have disregarded it.

But here, up in the mountains of Perion, she could not help but notice it. The rocks had turned blue, and the shrubbery around was sparse and raggled, as if they had never wanted to exist up here; yet, here was a flower flourishing with such brilliance...

A shadow

Before she had seen it, she had felt it coming. She whirled around, her braided hair whipping behind her.

Now a shimmer against the sky...

She swore softly under her breath. The Dawnbreakers, as her people called them, were perhaps the most dangerous beings in the clouds of Perion. She watched as the shimmering patch of sky gradually grew larger, tensed as she heard the flapping of enormous wings. It was too late to run now, all she could do would be to

Fight.

From a satchel she carried at her waist she pulled out a long thin flute. It had served her well when she had played at the Festival the year before.

Now it would serve her well as a weapon.

A quick flick, and the hollow, handcrafted wood had snapped apart. A thin, steel chain hung between the two pieces. Deftly her hand caught both pieces up and snapped their ends together; slipping the weapon over her arm, she was ready.

And not a moment too soon.

The breath caught in her throat as a massive fist materialized a foot away from her face. She dropped to a knee just in time as the fist crushed the wall behind her. Another second and she'd have been in the wall.

Quickly but expertly she wrenched the flower, roots intact, from the rock. She placed it in her satchel for safekeeping.

Now the Dawnbreaker had fully materialized. In spite of herself she paused a moment to stare at the huge monstrosity that hovered in the air just in front of her.

Her tribe called it the Dawnbreaker.
We call it Balrog.

She swore again, louder this time.

As the Dawnbreaker lifted its fist to strike again, she took a half second to examine her surroundings. She was standing on a narrow platform, barely two feet across. Already a hole twice her size had been made in the craggy exterior of the mountain, and the platform wouldn't survive a second.

She had only one option.

As the massive fist plowed towards her, she jumped.

In mid-air, she brought her knees up to her chest and her right arm down to a side. She had given herself a little backward momentum as she had jumped, and as she felt herself begin to descend, she sprang into action.

She pushed back against the wall behind her; pushing away not a minute too soon. The mighty fist struck the wall again, but then she was flying towards it, her right arm with the weapon below her, bracing for the impact.

She landed with a jolt, but she had been trained too well to care. She landed on all fours, lessening the impact with a slight bending of her arms; getting ready to spring again...

And then she was above it and on the way down.

For a creature its size, the Dawnbreaker responded with unexpected quickness. It pulled its fist back; the platform crumbling under it, and released a bolt of dark lightning at the girl who dared to defy him.

She twisted in a single, graceful movement; the weapon which she wore on her right arm cut the wind to a side; in a moment the slipstream had carried her past the deadly bolt.

Within her flute she had placed a paper-thin blade of adamantium, but this alloy had not been any ordinary one. Legend had it that it had been forged from the blade of a Taurospear; forged by the legendary craftsman of yore, Mr. Smith.

And now it would be the saving of her.

Gale Strike

She focused her mind, remembering what she had been taught by the spirits of the wind. The hawk; its movements faster than the eye could see.

She sliced the air in front of her; adding to her downward momentum... Closer and closer... She could see the Dawnbreaker charging up another burst of dark energy...

She anticipated the impact, and at the last moment, feinted.

The Dawnbreaker roared in rage as it released its attack a moment too late. Moments later it roared again as she scored a slash across its left wing as she landed on it. And then she took off again.

She smiled. She disliked fighting, but she had to admit; it felt good.

The Balrog was big; and against any normal foe, that would have been a powerful advantage. But she had the agility of a thief, and in that she proved the perfect adversary for it.

She dived again; but her strategy was not just to rush it. She may have been more agile than it, but the fact remained she was a few thousand feet above the ground, and she couldn't fly. Landing lightly on the tip of the Balrog's wing, she maintained her balance as it deliberately dived downwards in an attempt to throw her off. She hesitated for a moment as a downward lurching seized her stomach, then flipped lightly forward; ready to catch it on the back of its wing as he rose again.

But the Balrog had anticipated that.

Once again, it displayed tremendous agility for a monster of its size. Twisting its body around so it lay in mid air, he mustered all the dark energy he could in a second.

Burst Stream

A stream of pure darkness ripped through the sky. Thrown, she swerved out of the way of the huge beam. She could feel the darkness of the void; it was immense. As the Balrog finished its attack, she was relieved. She had survived the attack.

But can you survive the fall?

A voice at the back of her head warned her of the imminent danger. The Balrog lay a good distance to her right now, and she had no hope of catching it.

Don't despair

Unless...

Quickly she pulled her weapon off her arm, unintentionally scoring a wound on the inside of her bare arm. She chastised herself for not wearing her bracers that day. Then again, she had never meant to be fighting a Dawnbreaker...

She unattached the two parts of her flute. She chanced a glance at the Dawnbreaker still a ways below her. Could she make it? The long thin wire glistened in the sunlight; in a split second she had wound it around the sash she wore around her waist, and, with her heart in her throat, launched the other side towards the Balrog, only hoping it wouldn't move away...

The Balrog in question saw it coming; it wasn't worried, however. Many monsters had abilities that far surpassed humans, and Balrogs could see and judge distances much better by far.

The wire was a metre too short.

She noticed it a few seconds later.

And almost screamed in frustration. But even had she screamed, the wind would have snatched it away. Her throw was perfect, the two blades slicing the wind so that they could have made it all the way; but for that minor technicality.

You have one chance. Use it.

That voice at the back of her head again. She knew it was familiar, but she couldn't remember where she had heard it.

But she did know what to do.

She undid the sash that hung around her waist. Luckily, it didn't actually hold anything together. Her overlarge top now hung over her shorts; but now wasn't the time to examine if she was well-dressed or not.

It was a time for action.

And action was now.

Her heart gave a great leap as she felt a sudden tug on the sash she now held in her hands. She had managed to catch it! She felt the sash pull taut a second later as she fell below Balrog. The Dawnbreaker.

It roared; in disbelief this time, as it realized the battle was not over. In vain it tried to tear apart the wire which held the girl to him. The makeshift hook had caught in its back; the single place where it could not reach. How could a single human remain a pest for so long? He finally severed the sash as she swung from the temporary rope; but it was too late. Her upward momentum carried her against the wall, and like a cat she sprang from it, landing squarely on his arm.

You won't get me that easy, she thought.

Before he could attempt to shake her off. she had already begun running. Her jump, when she finally made it, took her across the breadth of the Balrog. As she flew through the air, she grabbed the flute still embedded in the Balrog's flesh, using it as a grip from which she swung herself higher up, taking it with her as she left. Dropping to a knee, the other leg pulled up to steady her, she landed on its head.

My chance has come at last.

The Balrog shook in fury, but now with more than a little fear.

"You fool human; do you really think you can defeat me!"

But her face was emotionless now. The power was no longer in its hands, but hers.

She recalled the ancient skill, once passed down to each and every warrior in battle, a skill forgotten by all but a few of her elders. A skill of the days before the Crimson Tide.

Power Strike

The Balrog roared in fury as its body disintegrated in a flash of anti-light. She jumped gracefully off and landed on a platform a few feet below.

"But we're not gone; not yet."