by Jeff Sabean
On his side of the melee, Heishi was engaged with the final visible bandit, an elf who stood a head taller than him and had the extra reach to go with it. The elf had produced a short sword in his primary hand and a dagger in the other and proved adept at using both fluidly. A quick stab came from his left side as the bandit attempted to impale him with the sword, but he was able to pick the attack off cleanly and remained balanced to spin out of range of the gleaming dagger that followed in on his right. Neither came on recklessly, both understanding the considerable skill of his opponent.
Heishi feinted left, then swung his blade over his right shoulder and attacked low, aiming for the left leg of his attacker. The dagger was there in a flash, turning the blade aside so the tip barely slid across the leather breeches of the bandit. His blade was exquisite, and would normally rip through leather pants, but he did not leave a scratch with the cut. The elf grinned, noticing his frustration, and flew into an intricate combination of cuts with both blades, moving Heishi back a step or two with each fluid movement. He stayed slightly ahead of the routine, picking off each attack cleanly and looking for an opening but not finding any.
After several of these combinations, the elf attempted to stab Heishi in the belly with his dagger, but he was able to shift his hips to the left, use the side of his blade to slap the short sword out wide, and with the dagger still coming toward where he had been a moment before he brought his blade back to the center and slashed up from the hip. Hoping his attacker would be cut in half as the rat monster was, his shock was complete when the leather completely protected the elf from his attack, forcing him to retreat and regain his footing. His shock apparent, the elf attacked in a daring attempt to finish the duel, but he did not understand the nature of the blade he faced. Heishi parried the first attack of the short sword, and as he brought his blade up for a killing strike activated the green lightning of his blade. The green sparks distracted the elf for a split second, which was all Heishi needed to bring the blade back across and stab through the armor and into the heart of his opponent. The shock froze on his face as the elf died, the blade sticking clean through his chest and out his back.
A shout rose from the tree blind as the blade activated, and the bandit Yutri was chasing looked over his shoulder to see why his lookout was breaking silence. The dwarf laughed as he brought his war hammer over his head and hurled it into the side of his head, knocking him to the side as his head caved in at the impact. Yutri quickly retrieved his hammer and faced the tree blind from behind his magnificent shield, ready to face more incoming arrows.
Di’eslo walked cautiously to Shenroc, keeping his shield in front of him as well, and pointed to the arrow in his chest. Shenroc looked down, laughed insanely, and jerked the arrow free from his chest, causing blood to flow freely. He appeared not to notice the blood, and turned toward the tree, ready to face the next threat. Di’eslo sighed and put his hand out toward the wound, then watched as a blue mist reached out from his palm and began to knit the muscle and tissue back together while Shenroc began to run.
Not to be outdone, Heishi sprinted to catch up to Shenroc, and the two barreled down on the tree blind, oblivious to the danger. As they approached the area, the blind became apparent, with cut bushes propped on piled up logs starting at ground level and reaching up into the trees to give an elevated position. Shenroc broke off to the left side while Heishi came up on the right, and as he was about to enter the blind a man stepped out. He wore a cloak of dark green like the one Heishi had chosen but leaves and moss had been attached to the cloak to form a type of ghillie suit. The man held a sniper rifle by the barrel in his left hand and slipped it to the ground as he stepped out into the light and raised both hands in a nonthreatening manner. Shenroc roared in victory as he came behind the man, ready to eliminate him, but Heishi gasped and shouted “Shenroc, NO!” as the bandit slid the hood from his face.
Against all odds, standing before him, stood Staff Sergeant Tiane. His appearance was more rugged than when the team had jumped from the plane; he had grown a thick beard, and had clearly spent some time in the sun, but Heishi would know his sniper anywhere. He dropped his sword, immediately dousing the electrical energy coursing through it, and grabbed Tiane in a bear hug.
“My boy, good to see you! How did you get here? When did you get here? What are you doing with bandits?” Heishi started asking questions faster than Tiane could answer them.
“Master--”
Heishi cut him off before he could finish the sentence with a shake of his head. “Just Heishi here, my brother.”
“Fair enough. What do you remember of our jump?” Tiane asked tentatively. “I just want to know if I am crazy or not.”
The two took a seat behind the blind as the remainder of the companions kept watch. Heishi went through what he remembered of the storm, of raising into the sky, then plummeting back to earth. He described the silver light shining that came from Zatus’ eyes and finished by saying he counted three parachutes before he blacked out. Tiane nodded through the whole story, confirming this was his recollection as well, including only counting three parachutes. He then briefly recapped the last few days, his experience in the bar, the mission Jim had given, and what Di’eslo had explained to him about planes of existence.
“And that leads up to your friends attacking me on the path. What are you doing with bandits?” Heishi asked sternly.
“Top, I don’t know if you will believe this. I still don’t believe it. But I’ll give it a shot.”
Chapter 7 – The Sniper
As Tiane plummeted to Earth, he saw the silver light shining from Zatus’ eyes. He frantically reached for his friend’s ripcord to make sure he landed safely, but Zatus beat him to it. Seeing his friend safe, he reached for his own and counted three other parachutes as his unfurled. Horrified, he saw CPT Aldith burn in and bounce off the ground, parachute still not deployed. Although he did not like her anyway, he could not help but feel a twinge of sorrow watching her die that way: then he saw a bright flash of red light and everything went black.
When he awoke, he was hanging in his harness from the branch of a tall tree in the middle of a forest. As he looked around to get his bearings, he saw a mountain poking out above the trees in front of him, the top of which was shrouded in clouds. It was light, but most of the area around him was hidden in shadows. He looked down, and there were bushes around the base of the tree, but he estimated it was no more than fifteen feet down.
“Ronin One, this is Ronin Four.”
Nothing.
“Ronin Six, Ronin Four, come in.”
Still nothing.
“Any Ronin element, this is Ronin Four, come in.”
Technically this was impossible according to Zatus. His communicators had worked across the world in any environment and had never once glitched. It was possible that the lightning fried it, so Tiane decided not to panic yet, but he needed to find a way out of the tree soon before he lost all feeling in his legs.
He pulled the handle on his reserve parachute, ejecting it and watching it fall beneath him to the ground below. Slowly, he unhooked his chest strap, then his right leg strap, wrapped his right leg around the suspension lines for his reserve for support, then disconnected his left leg strap. The backpack with his rifle and ammunition was tangled in branches of the tree, so he cut it loose, watched it drop beneath him, then slid carefully down the suspension lines of his reserve to the ground.
Upon retrieving his pack, he put his rifle together and looked for any traces of his team. He found none, and as the sun seemed to be setting, decided to make a camp to stay close to his landing site. All thoughts of his mission were gone, as he clearly was nowhere near the theme park, so as he started cutting tree branches to make a shelter for the night, he just hoped the rest of the team was able to stop that bomb. He put together a quick shelter with a floor lifted a few inches off the ground to keep him dry and keep animals away with a roof made of strange looking leaves he had never seen b
efore. He dug a small fire pit, collected some dry branches as kindling and a few logs he hoped would burn, and surveyed his small camp: it would suffice for a short-term solution.
Tiane reached into his backpack and pulled out the fourteen-inch wooden handles. He stared at the handles for a minute, then mentally commanded the blades to spring from the handles completing the kamas, the sickles, that Zatus had crafted for him. He put them through a few moves to loosen up his shoulders, then ignited the blades into green flames with a thought. He had no idea how Zatus did these things, especially being able to color the fire green, but he really loved these weapons. He smiled at the thought of Zatus and his inventions, then released the flames and slid the kamas into their specially designed holsters on his thighs.
The sun was setting behind the mountain as he slid into the shadows with his rifle to find his dinner. It did not take him long to find fresh tracks in the dirt close to his camp, although he could not figure out what type of animal had made them. After cautiously following the tracks for a way, he noticed the bushes ahead rustling although there was no wind. Stealthily moving through the brush, he found a tree with low hanging branches that would serve to get him above the limited visibility caused by the scrub for a better view of his target.
Hanging on a branch in the tree, Tiane realized how dark the woods had become while he stalked this animal. With no stars visible through the trees above, he was in complete darkness. The animal could still be heard moving but the bushes were no longer visible. He did not have his night vision scope as the operation was to take place during the day, and now Tiane was regretting his decision to pack light.
He stared intently into the darkness, focusing on the sound, and as he did so he felt himself becoming slightly lightheaded. It was as if he could feel the darkness around him as something tangible, folding around the trees, the bushes, and the animal he was planning to eat. As he focused, the woods became lighter, and soon he was able to see shades of grey all around him, and then was startled when his prey appeared before him. He could see the heat signature of what appeared to be a huge rat as if he was staring through a thermal scope.
Blinking a few times to ensure he was seeing correctly, he eased his rifle to his shoulder, slowed his breathing, lined up his shot, and slowly squeezed the trigger. Through his scope he could see the head of the animal explode, and the headless body dropped to the ground, blood oozing from where its head once was and creating a pool of hot blood in the dirt. Tiane slid the bolt of his rifle open slowly, catching the cooling brass casing and easing it into the sleeve pocket of his shirt, then chambered another round.
Easing himself lightly to the ground, he prowled through the darkness until he stood next to the corpse. The body was quickly cooling, which was distorting his thermal vision of it, but he was convinced the beast was, in fact, a rat, although it was almost five feet long. He removed his black dagger from his boot and commenced field dressing the rat, separating meat from bone and organs, then followed his earlier path through the darkness to his camp.
A short time later, with a small fire cooking his meal, Tiane finally had time to reflect on the occurrences of this day. He had multiple combat deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan before joining Ronin Team, as well as a few that technically never happened, and as a sniper he was used to being alone. However, there were still those times, like now, where he could not help but let his mind wander, and the loneliness set in. Typically, the first few days were not so bad: it is nice to get some peace and quiet to offset the explosions, but in these hours of quiet it was hard not to miss friends and family.
Tiane had no living relatives, just like everyone else on the team. It made packing up and leaving on a moment’s notice that much easier. But Ronin Team had become like a family to him. He really saw Heishi as a father type figure, Zatus was more of a brother to him than anyone he had ever met in his life, and Aki was like that crazy uncle that no one talked about but always brought you the coolest presents: usually the kind that explode if you use them properly. He sat in the dark and wondered where his family was: why no one was answering his repeated attempts on the communicator, and if any of them had survived the freak storm.
Most of all he wondered where he was and how he got here. Deployments were easy. He always had intel on the area before insertion, he had maps, and he had contingency plans. For the first time he was truly alone and felt lost. He needed to come up with a plan to get out of this mess, and for a moment he slipped into utter despair. As the tears formed, he reached into his memory to his survival training and remembered that the best way to push through this was to start planning his rescue. He finished his meal of roasted rat as he plotted his next steps to get out of the situation he was in and fell into a fitful sleep.
◆◆◆
After a week of scouting the surrounding area and returning to his camp each night, he awoke as the sun was breaking over the horizon to the sound of a twig breaking just outside his camp. Remembering the size of the rodent he killed the night before, Tiane eased the handles of his kamas from their thigh holsters, preparing to be attacked by a wild animal. His rifle was on his makeshift bed beside him, but his pistol was still in his backpack and would create unwanted noise to unzip the pack.
He slowly rolled to his stomach while watching his camp through the open side of his shelter. As a sniper he had been trained to move slowly and silently, and he took pride in mastering his craft. Silently he watched the open area, a single bead of sweat forming on his head as he consciously controlled his breathing. He would not be taken by surprise.
Occasionally he heard movement in the bushes on his left side, but whatever was out there was moving carefully as well, apparently aware of his presence. His patience finally paid off, and a man crept slowly into the edge of the clearing. He stood about medium height and had a slight build, but was hunched over, moving like a hunter tracking his prey. His dark brown cloak and animal hide breeches and tunic blended well with the trees behind him, which would make it difficult for a normal person to see him, but Tiane was not a normal person. He watched silently as the man moved into the camp, an arrow knocked in his bow with a slight bit of tension on the string, and he came to a stop on the other side of the fire pit which had burned out in the night leaving nothing but hot coals. His eyes were visible under the hood of the cloak, and Tiane could see them scanning for him.
In a swift movement, Tiane leapt from the shelter, simultaneously enacting the blades and bringing the emerald colored flames to life. Before the intruder was aware of his presence, Tiane was behind him with a burning kama blade to his throat. There was a moment of utter silence as the shock of his appearance settled on the man, and then he slowly reached his hands out to his sides and dropped his bow with the arrow still knocked.
“Who are you, and what are you doing?” Tiane hissed quietly. “And keep it quiet, if I think you are calling for help, I will remove your head.”
“My name is Jurian,” the man stammered. “I heard thunder from a clear sky last night, and when I came out to investigate this morning, I followed a blood trail and footprints from a butchered rat in the woods to this place. I did not mean to cause you alarm, but we do not get many travelers in this region due to the dangers, so I assumed the worst.” As he whispered, he relaxed a bit. “I must tell you, friend, that there are four deadly archers in the bushes with arrows pointed at you. We mean you no harm, but if you kill me it will be the last thing you do.”
Tiane eased his grip slightly but did not let go of Jurian. As he glanced around the clearing to verify the story he was told of archers, he was able to confirm three of the four. Extinguishing the flames of his kama, he slowly moved the blade away and released his prisoner. “I expect your men to come out where I can see them. Make no mistake, I can still kill you where you stand before an arrow can reach me.”
“Fair enough, stranger,” Jurian replied as he waved his arms to invite his companions to step forward. “He is safe, men, do him no har
m,” he called over his shoulder. He reached his hand toward Tiane and looked him in the eye, “As I said, my name is Jurian, a simple man attempting to survive in a cruel world. May I have the pleasure of knowing your name?”
“Call me Tiane, and it is a pleasure.” As he spoke, he retracted the blades of his kama and returned them to the holsters on his thighs, reaching forward to grasp the hand Jurian held forth.
“Well, Master Tiane, what brings you to this place forsaken by the gods?”
Tiane began to answer, but it stopped in his throat as he glanced to his side to see an elf standing next to him. He tried to recover quickly, but could not keep from staring at the elf, who stared back at him quizzically.
“Jurian, this human acts as if he has never seen a woodland elf before,” the elf chuckled. His voice was calm and sounded like running water, soothing Tiane into a sense of trust with the elf.
“Master Tiane, may I introduce Eogaon, of the woodland elves. May we assume you do not meet many elves in your realm?”
Never taking his eyes from Eogaon, Tiane shook his head slightly. “No, never. Umm, forgive me, but realm? I’m not sure where I am. Last I knew I was in Florida.”
The group surrounding him exchanged glances before Jurian looked back at Tiane. “Florida? I have never heard of this realm. How did you come to be here? Speak quickly man, before my companions decide you are a spy and execute you.”
