Potter's Field

Chapter Fifteen/Part Nine: Harley the Hero

Harley, seeing the giant take a step back, decided it was now or never.  He darted toward it, hands outstretched.  A large, dusty green volume tumbled from the giant’s side, bouncing off a jutting wooden beam and slammed a corner into Harley’s head.  Pain exploded across Harley’s skull, and, stumbling, Harley tried to blink away black spots.  Now would not be the best time to black out. 

Grunting, Harley shook himself and looked back toward the giant.  He ducked, barely dodging a wooden beam that slid down the mountain’s leg.  He tripped, falling hard on some of the rubble cast off by the giant.  He winced as the corner of a bookshelf knuckled right into his spine.  Well, that hurt.  Harley rolled over and lay on his stomach, breathing hard, as the pain on his back slowly dulled. 

Steeling himself, he pushed himself up and saw the young man, the one from before that Mars had blasted back.  He was behind the giant, his arms raised up as he stared intently at it.  Turning back to Mars and Silver, Harley could see that the giant had broken through another shield, one of Mars’ judging by the silvery glitter raining down.  It quickly swept aside the next layer, and started hammering on another of Mars’ shields.      

Making a split second decision, Harley stood and ran around the giant, intent on getting his hands on the magician instead.  If his touch could stop a giant as Mars thought, perhaps it might stop the magician from casting the spell that held up the giant, or any other troublesome spells for that matter. 

The young man glanced at Harley and raised an eyebrow.  The rubble Harley stumbled over gave a sudden lurch, making Harley trip backward.  Landing hard on his buttocks, Harley winced.  He grabbed the book next to him and threw it as hard as he could at the magician, who dodged easily.  The rubble around Harley suddenly rose up in a small hill and carried him backward a few feet before collapsing. 

The magician gave a grunt of annoyance at the breaking of his spells and let his arms drop while he rolled his shoulder and neck.  As Harley watched, the man popped what looked like a green tic-tac into his mouth and disappeared suddenly.  Harley blinked and rubbed his eyes.  Where had he gone? 

A loud creak above him caught Harley’s attention.  The giant had stopped its progress, teetering dangerously.  Harley stared up at it, mouth agape, hands held above him defensively as dust, wooden beams and books started raining down the giant’s back.  He didn’t notice the boy suddenly materialize next to him.  The magician pulled back his arm and punched Harley as hard as he could in the gut.  Harley doubled up, gasping as he stumbled back. 

The young man grinned.  “So physical attacks still work, huh?”  Harley scrambled forward, intent on grabbing the magician, but he disappeared again, and reappeared behind his giant once again.  He put his hands back toward the teetering, still giant, and it creaked slowly back into motion, pushing toward Mars and Silver’s shields.

Watching Harley out of the corner of his eye, the magician kicked out his foot, sending a book flying at Harley’s face.  It smacked him hard, pushing him to the ground, breaking his glasses and bloodying his nose, before tumbling down his chest and to the ground. 

Harley tugged off his broken glasses and shoved them in his pants pocket before sitting up.  He’d barely got his feet under him when he was attacked by another book in the shoulder.  It was followed by another book in the gut, and one tripping him from behind until Harley stood at the giant’s legs, a trail of fallen books leading from him to the magician.  Breathing hard through a bloody nose, Harley tripped, landing again on his bottom.  The back of his legs and hands ached from falling on uneven chunks of stone and jutting wooden beams.   Coughing and dazed, he shook his head, spraying his shirt front with blood.  Grunting, he tilted his head back, pinching the bridge. 

The magician, seeing that Harley was down, concentrated his full attention once again on shoving the giant through Mars and Silver’s shields.  Another one cracked and broke, raining glitter on the rubble below.  Mars quickly made another one that the giant immediately started hammering.   

 Just inches from the giant’s leg, Harley shook his head, ignored his throbbing bruises, and decided to stop going for the magician and return to his original task: stopping the giant. 

Standing, he spun toward the mountain and, ignoring the debris bouncing off his head and tumbling down his back, thrust his hands into the gap between a jagged wooden beam and a collection of books.