Cataindar

CHAPTER FORTY

Luisa blinked awake.  Her quarters were not empty, Finn stood at the end of the bed his burnt orange fur lit by the crackling fire.  On his face was a keen smile. “There you are. Hello Luisa.  I hope you are ready, I have arranged my best cadet Thyme to meet us in the training room, so you can really test your swordsmanship.”

As she sat up Luisa realised that her clothes were still wet. “Yes Finn, just let me get ready.”

He nodded, his eyes alight with his unbridled enthusiasm for combat.

“I’ll see you there.”

Luisa strode through the corridors nervous but excited, and still in a state of severe romantic agitation from the day before.  She smiled thinking of Matthew speaking to all the adults like that, her heart burst with a pride for her friend.  He was so different, he was like a small, insane, intellectual lion.  Her sword bounced against her side and she let her hand brush against the walls of the familiar corridors, she had the felt that she was going to kick arse today, she just felt too good for anything bad to happen.

She confidently pushed through the double doors that led to the training room.  Inside loomed the giant ratain dummy with Finn and Thorne at its side.  Thorne was still perched in between crutches and she smiled warmly at Luisa.  Finn spoke, “Start warming up Luisa, I am expecting Cadet Thyme to arrive any moment.”

Luisa jogged around and stretched a bit, getting warm for what should be an interesting session.  She practiced some of the sword thrusts, twists, stance changes and movements that Finn had showed her. Everything felt good. Finally the door banged. 

“Come in!” Yelled Finn.

There was no answer.

Finn shook his head at Thorne, “Cadets,” he murmured. 

He strode over and pulled open the door.  Behind it was a catain in armour including a full-face helmet that encased his whole head.  On his one side was a mace and the other a short sword. He was a heck of a lot bigger than Luisa was expecting.

The catain dipped his head to Finn.

“Come in Thyme,” said Finn.  He moved aside to let the catain past. 

As the catain stepped past Luisa saw Finn’s features, crease, then suddenly react with horror at the weapons on the catains belt.  Finn reached for the swords on his side.  But as the catain cadet had stepped through the door he had discreetly unclipped the mace from the left side of the belt, and drawing it across his body spun with it outstretched, aiming for Finn’s head.

Crack!

 Finn managed to get both paws to his head, with his leather gauntlets defending his face before the mace struck him.  The force of the blow took Finn clear off his feet and he hit the wall, falling to the ground in an unconscious heap. 

The catain stood above Finn for a moment and then turned towards Luisa and began sprinting towards her. 

“No!” Thorne screamed. Thorne struggled for a dart, her crutches falling to the floor.

The catain swerved in his attack, towards Thorne, pouncing up into a kick that caught her at full power on her injured stomach.

Throne was thrown back, curling into a ball, blood splattering from her mouth.  The armoured catain stood slowly and the helmet turned, once again, to Luisa.

Adrenaline dumped into Luisa’s blood.  She felt pure horror tear her stomach. Finn, was lying unnaturally still and Thorne was rolling in the dust arms outstretched towards Luisa wheezing in the dust. 

Luisa quickly drew her sword but her hand shook terribly.

Like an impossible nightmare the catain ran once again towards her. He pounced high bringing down his mace, but Luisa dodged it just in time and spun out of the way.  The catain, halted, slowly turned and circled, the black slits of the helmet showing no hint of the head that was trying to kill her.  He moved in and struck out with a grunt.  Luisa parried the strike it with a yelp.  Her whole body had become jelly, the grip in her hands gone, all her fighting moves, forgotten.

He’s going to kill me.

She backed away until the cavern wall met her back. 

He struck again, Luisa blocked weakly, but the strength of the blow made her shoulders scream. 

Tears had started to blur her vision.  She was going to die and there was nothing she could do. The catain spun and whipped his mace around in a large arch.  Luisa made to parry again but the strength of the blow knocked her sword flying from her grip, and she stumbled to the ground. She kicked back, scrambling along the side of the wall, away from her attacker as he slowly, inevitably, stepped forward.  She could feel tears stream down her dusty face. 

The attacker suddenly dove on top of her and with one of his armoured paws grabbed Luisa roughly by the throat, pinching her skin.  She felt all his weight upon her, choking her, as pinned her to the ground, his tail extended for balance.

“Please… urrreuh,” Luisa gurgled, she flailed her arms and kicked out her feet uselessly, his grip was like iron round her throat.  

The attacker’s arm slowly raised, the mace was high in the air.           

Luisa looked at the large ball of iron and spikes that were about to smash in her skull. 

It’s over.

Then from the corner of her eye she saw a blur of black and a whip of silver pass behind her attacker’s head with a thick ‘thwwwwwuck’.

The mace began to fall towards her face and she squeezed her eyes shut.

Nothing.

She opened them to see her attacker’s head spinning through the air, as the heavy ball of the mace fell harmlessly to the side.  Right in front of her face, was the severed neck, a perfect circle of purple tubes and white bone, and then her vision was gone. 

She struggled for breath, sucking in the metallic tang, thick blood continued to pump over Luisa as her attacker’s heart hammered out its last charge. Pushing the body off she wiped her eyes to see the armoured head still slowly spinning in the dust.  She pushed back against the wall.  Behind the slumped torso stood Darcius, breathing heavily, his long silver sword covered in blood.  He held out his paw towards her.

“Princess, please rise.”

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I really hoped you liked that! Romance & Action. It was amazing to see Cataindar crack the top 10 this week - big thank yous. Votes and comments my friends - that is what helps Cataindar progress! 

If you are interested to see what a Catain looks like; check out Cataindar.com.

Looking forward to seeing what you guys thought of this. :-) 

Wattpad legend Aaron Kite @IronKite gave Cataindar a shout-out and suddenly 20 new readers have checked in and some - in just a few hours - are all caught up. So a wonderful dedication to him!

Cheers guys. I've been waiting to share this scene with you for a while.