Left Hand Of God: Vertigo

Chapter 1~Tangents [Act3:Battle Born]

I place my hands on the trunk of the tree. The patterns of light are gone. Something small and hard lies underneath my left palm. I lift it and something falls down. Immediatly I go to catch it, its the gift presented to me by the beautiful warrior. The stone begins to glow and vibrate. Da-doom, da-doom, da-doom. Brown bodies emerge from my left and right coming from behind the tree. Alien deer rush past in a wild stampede, kicking up a storm of dirt and grass. A dark figure lands next to me. I have an out of body experience seeing myself, the figure and the herd then immediately snap back in.

The figure landed at an extreme angle. As opposed to dropping down from the branches, like a meteorite it came from the sky. I quickly make out the figure to be a man with dark brown skin, like mine, paused in a deep squat. He wears a blue mask with two horns and a single strap backpack. A blue aura flashes around his body. I duck.

¡Thwack!A thunderous crack echoes through out the rolling plain. The masked man delivers a powerful horizontal axe kick, aimed at my head, felling the tree and splitting it in two-leaving only a stump standing in its place.The rest of the tree slowly falls to the ground because there is so much of it to fall. I just barely managed to dodge. I slip the precious stone into my loincloth and jump away from the tree stump. My heart begins to be beat ferociously in my chest, I'm more startled and surprised than scared. In one leap the masked man, riddled with tattoos, quickly zeros in on me pulling a black knife from his pack. His visible aura has dissipated. Just as he is about to strike one of the deer jumps in the way. The dear drops mid stride sliding along the ground. Amazingly I see only a thin line of red on its torso.

The enemy has disappeared. Pain penetrates my left thigh. I am hugged from behind and lifted into the air. ¡Boom! I have been suplexed on the smooth surface of the stump. The enemy stands above me with blinding speed and wraps his left arm around my neck pinning me to the stump, but before he can complete the choke I slip my left hand between his arm and my throat. His right hand produces a white knife and he strikes down towards my chest but I intercept it with my free right hand grasping his wrist. The alien deer are still galloping past us. The knife inches towards my heart.

My breath heaves my chest in and out. In my mind I think "What is this, what's happening, what did I do to deserve this? and in my mind I hear the masked man respond "You existed".

A bone chilling roar bears down from above. It's an alien lion creature jumping from mid air aimed at the two of us. That must be what the alien deer are running from.

The knife is an nine inches away from my heart. The masked man, keeping his hold on me, turns his head and throws up his right arm. The lion clamps down on the his arm distracting him for a split second. I take the opportunity and summon all of the power available in my legs and glutes, the black knife cuts more of my thigh muscle. I yell with all my might and hip thrust off the stump sending the three of us flying backwards. Breaking free of his hold I clutch a fist full of grass and dirt-and mount a passing buck. As I ride to freedom I catch a glimpse of a ferocious fight between the masked man and the alien lion.
I examine the black blade imbedded deep in my left thigh. This is going to hurt. I grasp the handle, grit my teeth, take a deep breath and with a strained groan I pull it out in one smooth motion. The blade is laced with a poisonous compound judging from how that deer dropped to the ground. But how am I still alive?

Discarding the black knife, I take the grass and dirt then rub it into the wound.

( (Oracle Narrator: the lion slides of the masked man. They both get up, lock eyes and begin a stand off. "
Wait" asserts the blue masked man "You and I are of the same goal, lets work together.
The lion responds without moving its mouth in the masked mans mind "We need no assistance in completing our own missions. They will pay! They will all pay! And so will you."
The lion leaps at the masked man but he dodges out of the way.
The masked man responds, "That man I'm after may be resposible for what happened to your prince and princess, work with me so that we can bring him to justice. I know that the evidence shows that a black and silver aura signature was left behind by the assailant. His aura signature matches the signature in question."
The lion looks at down wind at the man riding the back of the deer. "It's him, the signal is weak but that's the one. There's no doubt about it.
After a moment the masked man stated agian. "Lets work together."))