Thoughts of Guilt: Chapter 41: Battle in Time

Thoughts of Guilt

Chapter 41

Battle in Time

          Knowing that I had blacked out, I felt myself coming to.  As I woke up, I gasped and jumped up.  What I saw next getting up is something so impossible, so incredible, and so impressive, I am feeling equally scared and in awe: I can see myself!

          No, I am not looking into a mirror; I can see myself in the same aura, with Truvor and the Shade Fury, I was just in before blacking out.  Also, I am able to see Annabeth, Cazi and Hyrith with their respective dragons along with Firestorm.  It is almost like someone has paused real time and I am the one looking on; because I can see everything around me like I am standing on The Golden Isles.  But I am seeing everything from a different perspective.  The thing that is leaving me most in awe about is the fact nothing is moving.  Everything seems frozen in time.  The obvious indicator to this is the giant lightning bolt which I am seeing striking the aura at the same moment Fredrick is starting to fire his sonic blast.  Normally, lightning strikes are only visible for a few fleeting moments.  This lightning strike before me has yet to disappear.  The only thing I can perceive moving… is me.

          I wanted to inspect the scene closer.  Getting closer I noticed even the dust and dirt specks in the air are “floating”; they only move when I come in contact with them when I move.  If I stop and get out of the way, they stayed right where I stopped moving.  After spending several minutes looking, I deduced this is the very moment before I blacked out.  But for the life of me, I cannot remember what was said in those last few moments.  All I can remember is grabbing for Fredrick’s broken spine tip.  However, upon closer inspection of the scene before me, Fredrick is starting to fire a few inches before I touched his spine tip.

          “So Fredrick does have it in him,” I smiled, as I said under my breath.  “He knew I was in trouble, so after I got his attention from him being thrown back possibly hitting his head and becoming dazed, he knew what I wanted before I wanted it.”

          This made me feel better, though it soon went away because, how am I supposed going to get out of here?  If Truvor had not jumped into the aura to try and receive the Shade Fury’s power, I would not be in this situation.

          “Speaking of which,” I said.  “Where is Truvor?  If I am moving around, then are Truvor and even the Shade Fury moving around too?”

          Suddenly someone is starting to creep up on me.  If it is Truvor or the Shade Fury, I played it as if I did not even know; I kept staring at the aura and relaxed my stance.  I could not hear anything, but I do not know how to describe how I knew either.  I “felt” someone creeping up behind me.  There is a cold sensation going down my spine and back, to the south.  By turning slightly to the left, I am able to shade my right side.  Doing this I am able to place my right hand on top of my sword to draw it at any second.

          I grabbed the grip on my sword and briskly drew while spinning around to defend myself.  The instant I spun around, swords clashed.

          “Oh my Jarl, you are getting good,” said the voice of the person I recognized to be that of Truvor’s.  “I thought I could just sneak up on you and kill you.  I can’t hear anything in this aura, except for voices.”

          I returned, “Well, did it ever occur to you I have always been good?”

          “It has,” he said as he pushed off with his sword to ready himself for another attack.  “But I figured that I have always been quicker than you.  I have always been one step ahead of you.”

          We exchanged a few parries, blocks, and attacks; though it felt like I am doing most of the blocking while he does the attacking.  After almost every time I would throw a block, he would follow be a sweeping swipe of his sword.  First time it was near the head, which I ducked by flinging my head back.  The second time was towards my legs, which I jumped over the sword.  Truvor kept doing this, so when he tried for the legs again, I did it a little different.  This time instead of just jumping over the sword, I used my arms to spin in a circle as I jumped up and led with my right leg as I spun to the left.

          My kick landed squarely on Truvor’s jaw as I replied, “True, you have been one step ahead of me.  But where has that gotten you now?  You don’t have the power of the Shade Fury.  You don’t have the treasure of The Golden Isles.  And you don’t even have your revenge you’ve been wanting on my family.  The thing about me, I may not always be the quickest, swiftest, or fastest in some things, but I do one thing that few do anymore.”

          “And what is that?” asked Truvor, as he wiped with his left thumb some blood that had come from his lip.

          “Think,” I answered.  “I use mah brain to figure out the problems at hand.”

          Truvor laughed, “What do you think I have been doing to stay a step ahead of you?”

          I started, “There is thinking and then there is think-thinking.”

          “What does that even mean?” wondered Truvor, out loud.

          I chuckled, “If you hyphenate a word, it makes it that much stronger.  Like my mother sometimes says, ‘I am going shopping; but not shopping-shopping, just shopping.’”

          “What are you talking about?” questioned Truvor.

          “Man, Truvor,” I responded.  “You don’t know anything about familes or jokes for that matter?”

          Truvor is starting to get a little irritated, “What is your point, boy?”

          “My point is,” I spoke.  “Sometimes the speedsters can be outwitted and beaten by the thinkers.  There is more than one way to win a race.  Being a smart racer and thinking about the race will at least match a speedster if not even beat them in a race.”

          “Very wise saying,” Truvor admitted.  “Very wise, indeed; maybe you are smarter than you let on to be.  The move you just did with a kick was impressive.”

          I then inquired, “And guess how I did that?”

          “You thought about it,” acknowledged Truvor.  “You figured out that I usually follow up with an attack with another attack to try to take out my opponent.  He saw my pattern and figured out a way to get around it.”

          “By thinking about it,” I added.

          “Very smart,” Truvor stated.  “You are a worthy foe.”

          I said rather sarcastically, “I’m glad I have lived up to your standards finally.”  Then with a more serious tone, “Now, let’s finish this.  There is no way I am going to let you get the Shade Fury’s power.”

          “Oh but Jarl,” Truvor said, menacingly.  “I already have it.”

          I then felt the sudden cold sensation on my back again.  So I dove right to roll out of the way.

          The Shade Fury had fired at me!

          “Impressive, Jarl,” Truvor relayed.  “I didn’t know you had that in you.”

          I stood up as I saw the Shade Fury, who had grown some, walk next to Truvor, “That makes two of us.”

          Truvor looked a little surprised by my remark, but then said, “Ah, I see now.”

          “See what?” I asked.

          “The aura… the power of the Shade Fury… it see us as both being worthy of its power,” Truvor relayed.

          “What are you saying I have some of its power?” I questioned.

          He answered, “Yes.  How else could you have known I was coming up behind you and then know the Shade Fury fired at you, only defend yourself and get out of the way?”

          That kind of made sense as I had never ever felt the way I did before both close calls from an attacker.

          “Hey Truvor,” I called out, while standing back up.  “What you are saying about ‘worthiness’ almost sounds like the tale of ‘Thor and his Hammer’.  How Thor got his hammer was how he became worthy of its power.  Thor was in line to rule Asgard, but so was his brother.  Through battles on Asgard, Midgard “Earth”, and other realms, he stopped the plot his brother had planned to take over Midgard and rule Asgard from the thrown.  Thor used the power of the Hammer during these battles, but mearly to see if he was worthy; after all was said and done, Thor’s father deemed Thor as worthy and awarded him all the power that the hammer would provide.”

          “I remember that story,” Truvor said.

          I then finished up, “So the aura is acting like Thor’s father in this case, and we are Thor and his brother.  The aura cannot decide between the two of us who is worthy enough, so we are supposed to battle it out to see who is.”

          “Now that you put it that way,” Truvor said as he got on the Shade Fury.  “I will destroy you and receive the Shade Fury’s power!”

          The Shade Fury then fired at me!

          All I had to shield myself from the blast is my sword!

          I thought that if I could deflect the blast with my sword… I closed my eyes as I braced for impact.

          I heard an explosion, yet it sounded far away.  I opened my right eye and then my left eye when I realized I am still alive.  I looked up to see the smoke of the explosion.

          “Incredible,” Truvor came back with.

          “I concur,” I agreed. “So I guess this means I have some of the Shade Fury’s power too.”

          Truvor sighed, “I guess that means it is either you or me who gets its power.  And if you have part of it, I must take it from you and have all of its power!”

          Truvor had the Shade Fury fire again with just a motion of his hand.  But yet again, I deflected it with my sword.  Again for a third and then other for a fourth time.

          “Is that all you’ve got?” I asked.

          “Fine,” Truvor declared.  “You think that thinkers can outwit a speedster?”

          “Yes,” I answered.

          Truvor then replied, “What if that speedster… and power and might on his side?”

          I saw where this was going and started to walk towards the southeast, “That would complicate things,” I then sprinted away.

          Truvor then yelled, “Run, my little fruit fly!”

          I then quipped, “Don’t flies usually ‘fly’ away?!”

          “Oh,” Truvor returned. “You’re going to wish you could!”

          I started running away with Truvor letting the Shade Fury fire at me from behind.  Bobbing and weaving to not let Truvor get a clear shot, I ran through the forest.  As I did, trees flew out of the way with every shot which would miss me.

          I then had a brainstorm, “If I have some of the Shade Fury’s power, then I can beat this guy if I just think of the way to do it.”

          As I ended the edge of the forest, I had another brainstorm, “Let’s play a little game called, ‘follow the leader’,” I thought.

          I ran past the place where I heard those two guards talking, but then suddenly darted right, ran up the side of the hill, and made a curved angle down back the way I came.  Truvor was not really expecting this, but nonetheless continue his pursuit.  I gained a little bit of ground on them, but ran faster.  I noticed that I am not feeling tired when I run; I still feel like I can sprint my fastest at every moment, which I did and gained some more ground on them.

          I then took the path down to the right, past Moonstone’s cave.  Running further down the path I saw that the path came to a dead end.  This cove like place had fairly high cliff walls all around.  I noticed that the east wall is right next to the seal cave as before.  Stopping myself about twenty yards from this wall, I turned to face Truvor and the Shade Fury.  They came at me like I am a mere target they can run over.  When they came within twenty yards of me, I turned around and ran towards the wall.

          “There is nowhere to run, Jarl,” Truvor exclaimed.  “I have won, and you have lost!”

          Now fifteen yards from the wall, the Shade Fury fired a blast at me.  Still, I kept running.  Ten yards… five yards… the Shade Fury’s blast nearly at me.  Timing my steps, I jumped the last few yards up the wall, “walked” up the wall two steps, and back flipped off the wall.  Where did I land?  Right behind Truvor on the Shade Fury; Truvor did not know what to do, and before he could do anything, I threw a right cross so hard that I bet even Truvor’s Grandfather would be feeling the pain.  Truvor fell off the Shade Fury and I maneuvered the dragon up the cliff through the falling boulders and debris from its blast.  I looked back to see Truvor engulfed in the rubble and dust below.  I circled back around and landed ten yards from the edge of the rubble, which by the time I did circle around had started to settle.  I got off the Shade Fury and walked back to the rubble.  Truvor emerged from the rubble very shaken, but still in attacking mode.  With a bent and dinged up sword, Truvor lunged at me only to be blocked and then punched in the gut.  I threw him to the ground and raised my sword and swung down… only to stop right before Truvor’s neck.

          “Why did you stop?” Truvor spoke.  “Finish it!”

          I raised my sword again… but yet again stopped short from finishing it.

          “No,” I simply spoke.  “I won’t finish it.”  I tossed my sword down and yelled out, “No, I won’t finish him off!  Whoever or whatever you are that holds the Shade Fury’s power, I will not finish my foe off!”

          “Then you are worthy of the power,” came a voice from behind me.

          I returned, “Who said that?”

          “I did,” came the voice again.

          “Who?” I questioned.  “I don’t see anybody.”

          “Look at the dragon,” said the voice again.

          “Son of a motherless yak, it is coming from you!” I pointed at the Shade Fury.  “How can I understand you?”

          The Shade Fury began, “For the time being, you are able to understand Dragonease.”

          “Nice,” I interjected.

          The Shade Fury chuckled or purred or something, but continued, “Yes, it is ‘nice’, how you say it.  From your actions just now, you have proved your worthiness to me.  Truvor and you were two sides of the same coin: One for good, the other for evil.  How you so eloquently put it earlier, you are Thor and Truvor was Thor’s brother; both fighting to be worthy of The Hammer, the Shade Fury’s might.”

          “So what does this mean?” I asked.

          “You won, Jarl,” the dragon answered.  “But you don’t feel as though you have, do you?”

          “No I don’t,” I responded.  “So what now?”

          “Since you have fought with honor and proved you are worthy, I will grant you this: Do you wish to have the power of the Shade Fury for yourself?” the dragon inquired.

          I thought for a moment, and then made up my mind, “Do I have to have this wish, or can I request another?”

          “What did you have in mind?” asked the Shade Fury.

          I added, “If you say I am worthy of your power, then will you trust what I have to say?”

          The dragon nodded, so I requested, “I wish that no one has your power.”

          The Shade Fury cocked its head like that and looked at me strangely, “You don’t want the power?  Why?”

          “Because if I was truly meant to have the power, you would have given it to me already,” I answered.  The Shade Fury had a sly smile on.  I continued, “But more than that, power like this can go to your head.  My friend Hyrith says that the power just from the ‘mystical’ weapons can possibly take over your brain and affect your judgment.  I believe that is what happened to Truvor, to a degree.”

          The dragon then asked, “So what would you wish me to do with the power?  It cannot be destroy, as it is like energy.  This power cannot be destroyed or created, only transformed into something else.”

          I thought for another moment, “If it cannot be destroyed, then put it somewhere that no one will be able to reach it.”

          “Is that your wish?” the dragon made sure.

          “Yes,” I answered back.

          “Then so be it,” the Shade Fury said.  “I must commend you, Jarl.  Not many would have made the same choice as you.”

          “Well,” I smiled.  “There is more than you think that would have made a similar choice.  Good place to start is my friends and even… my family.”

          “Ah yes,” the dragon declared.  “You need to get back to saving your own.”

          “What happens now?  What happens to Truvor?” I questioned.

          The Shade Fury began to walk back to the frozen scene with the aura, the dragon answered, “Actually it has already happened.  You thought time was frozen, it really isn’t.  In the split second that the ‘evolving’ process, as you put it, took place, you had this ‘dream’.  None of it was real, in the sense of actual time.  The dream took place to see who would get my power.  Truvor was going to get it hands down since he jumped into the aura; however, you jumped in there too, so there had to be a duel to decide who would get it.  Your actions speak louder than what anything I have ever seen.  Why did you make this choice?”

          I then said, “Well, one can never lose hope in the good a person has inside of them.  Through all the events and things I have gone through, one must never lose hope.  Just because everything might seem against you or a terrible thing has happened, you must cling to hope that you will stay who you are and be stronger because of it.  You must hope that nothing will change you.  You can only change you because of what you hope in.  Hope is more powerful than your power, tenfold.  With hope, anything is possible.”

          When I finished we were back at the scene.  I then asked the dragon what happens with Truvor.  The dragon says that Truvor was already lost.  The power from the weapons did manipulate his mind, for he let it do so.  It was only a matter of time before something worse would have happened to him.

          “If you inspect Truvor after you are thrown back after the ‘explosion’,” the dragon said as it morphed back into the Shade Fury that was “frozen” in time.  “You will see that he is gone.  Like I said, the power from the aura was taking him over; so when everyone had been thrown back, the impact with the wall and then the ground finished him off.”

          I sighed, then the dragon wondered, “Why are you said?  Wasn’t he your foe?”

          “Yes he was,” I answered, but then smiled when next said the word “hope”.  “I was ‘hoping’ he would change.  I never try to give up on anybody that there is good even in the worst of person.  Some people are beyond that, but there are those in hope can be good again.”

          I then was pulled into my “other body” and then the dragon said, “You will not remember how exactly this happened.  The only thing you will remember is that you won, Truvor lost, The Golden Isles power is no more, and the ‘mystical’ weapons disappeared.  Other than this, you will not have any recollection anything that has happened in this dream.  You will wake up when you mount fired at the same time the lightning struck the aura.”

          “What about The Shadow Dragon and its power?” I quickly asked.

          The dragon relayed that “if” The Shadow Dragon is real, its power has the capability to wipe out and destroy anything in its path.  The Shade Fury also said that Truvor could have never truly released The Shadow Dragon on The Golden Isles for it does not even exist on The Golden Isles.  The legend this dragon on The Golden Isles was just that of a legend from a different island.  The Shade Fury said that is all they know.

          “Well, it has been nice knowing you,” I spoke as there a thunderous sound began to pour in as the area around me became increasingly bright.  I yelled back to the Shade Fury, “By the way, what is your name and are you a boy or a girl?”

          “My name?” asked the dragon, again seemingly surprised and then smiled at me.  “I’ve never had a name.  I’m a hatchling, remember?”

          “Oh come on you gotta give me more than that,” I chuckled.

          “The Shade Fury you see before you is a girl,” Then the dragon just said, “I’m a dragon from the sands of time.”

          I then felt a rush of adrenalin as I began thinking about grabbing Fredrick’s broken tip spine.  I slapped it, my dragon fired, the lightning bolt struck, explosion, and everybody was thrown back.

          “Just like before,” I thought.  “But how come I haven’t forgot anything?”
          I could not seem to move my body and then saw myself flying back towards the ground.

          “Oh that is how,” I rolled my eyes. I tried to lift my arms to stop myself, “No, no, no, no, no, no, nah man!”

          I hit the wall and blacked out… again for the second time!  Or would it be the first because this has already happened?  The second-first time I blacked out.  But that does not make any sense.  It would be the second time I blacked out while experiencing my first black out.  But then…

          Now I really blacked out.

This chapter was like a Twilight Zone-ish chapter.