Post by Lantlas on Jun 19, 2006 0:57:30 GMT -5
Two knights stood, guarding the entrance to the northwest fort. Nearing midnight, their heads started to droop in exhaustion. Struggling to stay awake after a long day in the hot sun, they did their best to remain at their posts. Crickets provided the soundtrack to the otherwise silent night of the waxing-gibbous moon. Leaves crunching interrupted the peace, but it was so minimal that the knights paid it no mind.
A branch bent down slightly through some thick leaves, and an arrow pierced the summer air. The air was split by the velocity of the weapon, and it shot right through the right knight’s throat! The left knight broke out of his haze and looked around frantically. A dark figure snuck up behind him and snapped his neck, letting him down silently. The gates to the fort were opened, and unbeknownst to anyone inside, they were being invaded by a single warrior.
Meanwhile, in the captain’s quarters, Inlesanor was joking with a few of his new human friends. Inlesanor mocked an Elven woman being slain by the slash of a sword, and it drew huge laughs from his cohorts. “Inlesanor,” one of them cracked, “you can’t possibly be one of them. You’re too funny.”
“I’m not of the Elven race anymore,” Inlesanor announced, “I’m a Knight of the Crown!”
All the men in the room raised their drinks to loud cheers, and at that very second, a bloody body tumbled down the stairs and landed at the feet of Inlesanor. He turned the body over and found a lifeless head with its eyes open wide in horror. Inlesanor and the rest of the knights drew their swords and scouted the room. “We know it’s you,” Inlesanor teased. “Come out, and we promise we won’t hurt you!”
One of the knights took a few steps up the hallway from where the fallen knight had come. An arrow suddenly shot from the other side of the room, piercing his unarmored torso and causing him to fall onto his human brethren. All the knights in the room ran towards the window with their weapons drawn, but could see nothing outside of it. “Thinks he’s a smart elf, does he?” One of the knights pondered aloud.
Inlesanor attempted a sarcastic laugh, but was starting to tremble. Two men already lay dead in the room with them, and they couldn’t find the assailant in the dark of night. Nor could they hear the figure sneaking up behind them as they all peered out the window.
SLASH! A long-sword sliced so hard that it tore one of the knights in half! Another to his left, stained in the splattered blood from his fellow knight, received a small-sword in the kidney, and he let out a painstakingly-loud yelp as he crumbled to the ground. The two standing aside Inlesanor turned at the same time, and each received a steel blade in their trachea, and with the twist and slice, both of their heads tore clean off and bounced to the floor as their bodies fell to each side. Inlesanor stood alone by the window trembling, dropping to his knees at the feet of his attacker; the leader he’d betrayed, and the one whose child lay dead from his wrongdoings.
“Eldarin, I can explain,” Inlesanor begged. Eldarin stood silently, his swords stained red from the blood of fallen men. His expression was cold, not even an eyebrow raised at the begging former warrior of his, who was crying as he pleading for his life. “I can explain! I promise!” Eldarin reached out a blood-soaked glove and lifted Inlesanor by the throat and placed him in the windowsill. Before Inlesanor could let out a scream, Eldarin turned each blade inward and scissor-cut Inlesanor’s throat. Eldarin slightly stuck his head out the window, watching the head of his turncoat and its body fall to the ground.
Eldarin heard the sound of pounding feet on wood. As Eldarin pulled himself to the roof of the fort, the door opened with several knights, their bows raised to strike. Their weapons dropped as the leader of the Knights stepped forth, observing the carnage that lay before him. Stepping in blood, he lifted his boot to his vision, and then stepped towards the window. From the top of the roof, Eldarin held his long-sword ready to stab at the head that would protrude from the window. As he raised his sword for the kill, a cold blade penetrated the right side of his lower back!
Eldarin turned around and found two knights preparing to push him off the roof. Eldarin had dropped his short-sword when he was stabbed, but struggled in pain as he held his long-sword to fend off his attackers. Eldarin didn’t hesitate and moved in for an attack on the left knight; at the same time grabbing his arms to use the knight’s own sword to block his fellow knight’s attack. Shoving the knight to the ground, he kicked the other one in the face and grabbed a tree branch hanging above him. Before either of the knights could regain their composure, Eldarin disappeared into the trees. Several arrows fired off towards the sound, but the night soon fell silent once again.
The leader of the Knights soon made his way to the roof, leaving bloody footprints on the oak. More of his knights began to gather around their leader as he bent down and dabbed a finger in Eldarin’s blood. “For an immortal, he bleeds just the same,” he muttered. He turned to his knights with a cold stare. “Find him. When you kill him, burn the village.” His knights all looked at each other for a few seconds. “NOW!” At the sound of their commander’s scream, they all scattered, yelling various battle cries. The leader of the Knights looked out towards the forest to which Eldarin had disappeared. He crossed his arms and let loose a heavy sigh. “Your people will be wiped off the face of this earth.”
...
I leaned against the wall in the corner of the room. Emerald was jumping for joy all about, clenching her Ace Anderson action figure. She skipped to her own little song, and sang to herself as she drifted from wall to wall. After a few laps, she crawled near me. “Vati?” she asked.
“Yes, Emerald?”
“Can I tell Ace about the hospital?”
“Sure, sweetheart.” I didn’t really care of what she spoke, as long as she didn’t mention my promise to little Claudia. I couldn’t imagine how Ace would react to something like that, and perhaps I’d acted in a hasty manner.
“Vati?”
“Yes, Emerald?”
“Is Ace gonna be here soon? Is him? Is him?”
I nodded, looking down at my watch and sighing. “Yes, Emerald. He should be here any second.” The door handle began to turn, confirming my prediction. Ace Anderson, the man with whom I’d had the lengthiest and most competitive battles of my career, peeked his head inside my locker room and glanced in my direction. He nodded slightly, as if to say hello, before turning to look down upon Emerald. He gave her a smile, and she smiled back whole-heartedly. "Hey there, you must be Emerald."
Emerald turned back to me with the biggest smile I’d ever seen. “Vati! Vati! Acey knows my name! He knows my name, Vati!” Emerald ran to him and jumped off the ground to hug him around his waist. Not sure how to react, he looked to me, and waited for my approval. I gave him a nod, and he returned her hug. He seemed very cautious about the whole thing, not wanting to upset anyone.
“Seems like you’ve got yourself a pretty big fan,” I mentioned, trying to break the awkwardness between the two of us. My heart fluttered, watching how much affection my dear little girl held in her heart, and tried not to reveal how conflicted I was feeling about the situation.
My comment seemed to loosen him up a bit, as he replied, "it's refreshing to know I at least have one."
“Don’t be ridiculous, Ace” I reassured. “In your time as the champion, you’ve garnered more respect than anyone else I’ve ever faced. And you’ve certainly won someone’s adoration, that’s for sure.” I stood up, and placed a hand on Emerald’s back as she still held an iron-tight grip around Ace’s waist. “Think she might be wrestling with Jade pretty soon? She’s a strong one.”
"She could probably take her," he replied, as he patted Emerald's head, "you wouldn't mind letting go for a couple of seconds, so I could breathe a little? I've been in bear-hugs before, but none like this." Emerald timidly backed off slightly, but stood right by her hero’s side.
She looked back at me, still grinning ear-to-ear. ”Vati,” Emerald cooed in her begging voice. “Can Acey take me to meet him friends?” Emerald looked up at Ace with the most innocent of pondering stares. “Acey, you gotsa girlfriend? I’ll be your girlfriend, please Acey!”
"Sorry Emerald, I already have a girlfriend, but you can be my special friend if you want. Maybe someday, you can meet my girlfriend. Her name is Katelyn. I think she'd like you a lot."
Emerald pouted a little bit, but almost as if a light-bulb was going off, she jumped in the air. “Can I meet her now? Can I? Can I please?”
"Not today, she's back in Boston. But I'll tell you what I can do. Vati and I have a match at Return to Glory, you know that, right? Well, she'll be backstage, and I'm sure you will be too, so maybe you and her can watch the match together, and cheer on Vati."
“Yay!” Emerald jumped up and down again and hugged Ace around the waist one more time. Again, she looked up with her innocent pleading grin. “Can I see some pictures of Katelyn?” Ace looked confused, as if not sure how to handle this, and his eyes caught mine. Without Emerald knowing, I mouthed the words, “take her, I trust you.”
Ace fished around in his back pocket for his wallet, and he took it out. He searched through it, until he pulled out a wallet sized photo. He handed it to Emerald, "that's her right there. Isn't she beautiful?"
“She’s really really pretty,” Emerald cooed. She turned to me, holding the picture. “Vati, will I be this pretty someday?”
“You’re already that pretty in my eyes, sweetheart,” I replied.
“Yay! Maybe then I can be Acey’s girlfriend!” Emerald skipped off towards her room, singing at the top of her lungs, leaving me and Ace standing there.
"She's really something else, man. But why me?"
“Emerald has the most innocent, non-judging perspective in the world, Ace,” I explained. “She knows nothing of your past, or anything about that ‘Greatness in the Flesh’ crap you used to pull. The only time she saw you was at Collision Course, and she saw a man fight her Vati and shake his hand afterwards. She fell in love with the Ace you’ve become.”
"Well, I decided to become this Ace, for the better. So the fans could connect to me more, instead of me disconnecting from them. I was tired of being the bad guy. I guess it worked out how I had hoped," he scratches his head before continuing, "I hope this doesn't create any animosity... and I really hope she doesn't cheer for me over you at Return to Glory."
“She’s a little girl,” I replied. “Sometimes they can be rebellious. “Rest assured, there is no animosity, and there won’t be, no matter for whom my daughter is cheering at Return to Glory. Neither of us will be there to know anyway.”
"I don't mean to pry, and I hope I don't offend you, but what of her mother?"
I looked away, hoping no one would ever ask about that. “She’s not my biological daughter,” I answered, very softly. “You see, Ace… I found this little girl when I was still in Germany. Her family abandoned her for dead when they found out she had leukemia. After she died… err… got better, her name was registered as my last name, and they gave me custody of her for saving her life.”
"I... I…wow. Lantlas, raising a little girl all by yourself, and loving her like she is your own, that takes more courage than stepping into a ring with any man. I've always held respect for you, and now, it extends beyond what you can do in the ring," he shuffled his feet a bit, and looked down at the floor, before looking back up at me, "thank you for this. Thank you for letting me meet your daughter. She's just so pure, so innocent... I doubt I could have a better fan. Thank you."
“You’re not gonna leave, are you?!” Emerald ran up to Ace and locked a hold on his legs before I could thank Ace for what he’d said.
"You aren't going to put me in the figure four are you?!"
"If you leave, I'll make you tap out," she yelled.
"It sounds unbearable, but if I stay here forever, Katelyn might get sad. If she gets sad, she might cry... I don't want that." He looked to me and made a gesture, and I nodded once again in approval. I could hardly believe this careful and cautious man could be so ruthless in the ring. He picked her up, and held her in his arms. She looked at him with a big smile, and he spoke to her softly. "Here is what I can do, though. Maybe before mine and Vati's match at Return to Glory, you, Vati, Katelyn and I can all go out for ice cream. How does that sound?"
“Yay, ice cream!”
“You just made her year,” I laughed.
"Well, she's brought new meaning to my career, so it's the least I could do." he gave her a wink, and hugged her once more. She hugged him back, and he looked at me. "You should consider training her. She's got an iron grip already."
“I’m looking into it, that’s for sure.”
Ace waved a bit as he walked out the door. As he was doing so, Emerald looked up at me. “Vati, can Acey try to win the match for Claudia too?” I clamped my hand over her mouth, hoping Ace hadn’t heard what she said. When I heard no more footsteps, I looked Emerald in the eyes as I held her hand.
“Em, this is important. From now on, us going to the hospital is just between us, okay?”
“Okay,” she frowned a bit, but then skipped off to her room once more. I could hear her telling her stuffed animals that she got to meet her Acey. I, as well, was seeing Ace in a new light, and was very impressed with the man he’d become. He’d be a terrific father one day. About that, I had no doubt whatsoever.
...
*All lines for Ace Anderson composed and written by Andrew Stevenson, author and roleplayer for Ace Anderson.