Shadow Warriors

We fight as one against a legion of shadows. But even when facing certain death, there is hope and beauty in the struggle.

This seems to be the end. I’ve finally found my soul mate, and we’re going to die to a horde of ravening shadow-beasts. Figures. I never thought I would be able to find someone who would understand my gift, let alone share it. And for that someone to be a strong and capable warrior, able to allow me to stand on my own two feet at his side, is an indescribable feeling. I’m certain that we will die here today, but if it is at all possible, I will try to ensure that he has a chance to escape. It is the least I can do for him. These last few days have been amazing. An oasis in the desert that has been my life up until this point.

I am crouched and ready to spring, the man standing at my back coiled in readiness. The horde is growing restless. As soon as one of them breaks, they will descend on us in force. All I have is a spear and my gift. He doesn’t even have a weapon - he fights with his fists. But we will go out fighting. I have a vague hope that if we can kill enough of them in the first flush of battle, we can push through one flank and outrun them, but it is a futile hope in the face of the multitude that surround us.

There - the break in the standoff - the drop of water that breaks the dam. The first of them leaps at my face, and I burst upwards from my crouch to thrust my spear through its open mouth. I spin the staff, throwing the beast off even as it dissolves back into shadow, and then I am ducking and dodging and weaving between attacks. I am lost in the throes of bloody war, and my heart revels in the dance. In the moment, there is only the joy of doing what I was born to do. Each movement is calculated and efficient, yet graceful. In my quiet moments, I hate that I am this way, but as much as I try to supress my nature, I am fluent in the art of battle. Skilled in the rhythm of killing. As is the man behind me.

It is a strange and wondrous feeling to know that he is guarding my back, as I am shielding his, deflecting those that try to get between us, killing those in front of us.There is a bittersweet enjoyment in this. This is the fight of my life, and regardless of the inevitable end that I know is coming, having him at my back is a pleasure. We move in perfect synchronisation, each of our movements flowing around each other. There is perfection in this endless moment.

But it cannot last. The horde rises and falls, but still more of them pour towards us. And finally, the moment ends. My spear snaps through the neck of the creature, and behind me I feel him stumble. I am out of weapons, out of ideas " there is only one last thing that can save me now. Even as I think this, I fall forward into my shadow form, and now the dance begins anew, more intense than ever. This form is lithe and strong. It comes at great cost, but the rewards are many. Each move is filled with power, with efficiency, and the horde fall before my claws and my teeth. At my back, I sense the power of his great form, killing the enemy with great swipes of his paws. The rhythm is still strong between us.

We dance for what seems an eternity, until our movements slow, our reflexes dulled. One weapon finds its mark in my side, then another and another, but I fight on, moving on instinct alone, blinded by pain and exhaustion. And still they come. Unending, ever-changing, the enemy swarms us without mercy. I keep fighting, although there is almost nothing left to give. The blur of the dance has become a haze of exhaustion, and I am swinging wildly at anything that approaches me. Until suddenly, they stop coming. There are beasts still ringing us, their numbers seemingly endless, but they are standing still, just watching us. Any other beasts would have left a wall of corpses, but shadow-beasts dissolve back into the shadows they were created from when they are killed.

They part, directly between us, and a new beast walks among them. One of their kind, but larger than any of them. And then I see the signs. This is one of us. A shadow form. As I realise this, the beast ripples and shifts into human form " a wild-eyed female, clad only in a loin cloth. I ripple into human form as well, waiting to see what she will do. She taunts us, but we do not respond, and this seems to enrage her. She sneers and throws down a challenge. If we can defeat her, she will let us walk away. I retort that as soon as we are distracted, she will have her minions attack and the threat is gone, but she swears that she will not let them interfere.

Funny, I can tell she was lying about letting us go, but she is being genuine when she says that the challenge lies in defeating us without help. Not that we will be much of a fight. We have been battling for what feels like hours, and both of us are severely wounded. But this may give us a better chance of survival than continuing to engage the horde, so we agree. And just like that, the fight is joined. She is a masterful opponent, and we are weakened and slow. Regardless, we beat her down. As he pins her to the ground with the bulk of his bear form, a rumble goes through the watching masses, and we look at each other in desperation.

I ask her to provide us safe passage through them. We have beaten her, and she told us we would be free to go. She laughs hysterically, and I see her intention form in her eyes, but before she can form the words, I lunge forward, shifting instantaneously, and rip out her throat. As I watch her die, the horde stills into absolute immobility. Both of us leap up and to the side, putting our backs to each other, facing down the beasts before us. I feel a tension in the air unlike any form of battle fever I have experienced, and I wonder what new horror this heralds.

A ripple goes through the ranks of the beasts in front of me. From the tensing of the bear behind me, I assume it has travelled through the whole ring. Suddenly, one of the beasts in the front change, shifting before my very eyes into a panther, resembling my shadow form in almost every manner. This starts a chain reaction, and all of the horde in front of me shift. When the flurry of shadows stops, the horde in front of me are in my form. I can feel a pressure in the back of my mind, as if there were a thousand voices whispering to me all at once.

I look to my side, and see a strange sight. Directly to the side of me, the beasts are panthers up until a clearly delineated line, where they are in the form of bears. They seem to have split almost perfectly in half. I relax slightly, and the voices come into focus, almost drowning me in sound. Suddenly the voices stop, as if someone has raised a hand for silence, and one steps forward and bows, one foreleg stretched out, head down.

“We welcome you, master. Command us as you will. We are Legion, bound to your bidding until parted from you by death. If your death is at the hands of another, we will pass to them. But if you are to die a natural death, we will be released to wreak havoc on the world.”

The shock has shifted me back into human form, and I feel a hand on my shoulder. I turn and look into his eyes, and he whispers to me. “Marry me.” All else falls out of my mind. It’s too much for me, and I can feel myself start to lose consciousness. I collapse into his arms, almost crying from pain and fatigue, but I manage to get one word out before the darkness claims me. “Yes.”

Author's Note

This was written as an exercise with the picture above as the prompt. Hope the story does the picture justice.

Reviews

[Kasey Miriam]

Very interesting and powerful well done!

[Honey-Bee]

This is a powerful piece and I find it amazing that you capture almost every detail of a war. I also find it awesome and amazing that you are female and describing this. I think there are more female than we know that take delight in fighting. I think there is a fight in all of us though. Love this well described piece of writing!

[CatT]

This was awesome! I felt like I was watching the battle play. Great descriptiveness!

[Tristyn]

Great, thanks. I'm glad you enjoyed it. I was pretty involved in the story.

[Aethereal]

I felt as though I was watching an action movie as I was reading your words. Phrased such as " I saw the intention in his eyes" made it all so real. You should run your stories through a spell checker because I've found many errors in here related to your habit of using an "s" instead of a "z" in words such as synchronization and realize. I like how your warriors fall into their shadows. Shadow, Intention, Action, Passion, eye to eye contact, hunter and prey, bittersweet conflict.

[Tristyn]

Thanks. That's great news. I felt the same way writing it. :)

Re the -ize vs -ise debate, because I'm Australian, I automatically spell it with an S. But when spell checker picks it up as an error (even though both are acceptable), I usually change them. I guess I missed them in this one. But honestly - I like the S's better. Personal preference. :P

I'd love to find the picture that inspired it and post that for you to see, because it really does fit the story so well.

[Aethereal]

This picture might help a reader to change his perspective so his mind creates a vision that's closer to the one that your mind created, the actual vision that inspired your story.

[Michael Phillips]

First off I want to say that Iooveryour short story and im glad that your last words were those you've said.
Second off Iwant to thank you jack for sending this to me to read! Thanks mate and thank you tristyn for sharing

[Tristyn]

That's great. :) I wasn't sure if they made it sound trite, so it's nice to know it worked. Thanks for reviewing.

Also thanks to Jack for recommending it. :P

[A. Amos]

This is one interesting write and I truly enjoyed, Thank you for sharing

[Tristyn]

Thanks. :)