Broken Wings

Into the Breach

He reached up to yank off his blindfold and gag. He worked out his jaw and huffed, "Finally." Then he whipped back around to face me, his eyes blazing with bright silver light!

"OH SH-" I didn't even have time to swear before a massive blow slammed into my stomach! I heard the gryphon squawk in alarm as I coughed and automatically doubled over while staggering backward. I managed to keep my feet, but I had no chance to recover before another blow caught me in the side of the head! I spun away from the hit and reached out to grab the arm that delivered it, but my hand passed through empty air! I raised both arms to protect my head and spun back around, planning to tackle the sylvan to the ground, but he was further away than I'd thought: five or six feet. His eyes flashed and another two blows impacted one after the other into my unguarded stomach!

"Guh!!" I grunted, coughing as I tried to regain my breath. THAT HURT! More importantly, that time I saw that he wasn't physically striking me. This was- "Ah!" Another hit! Right in the face that time! This was some kind of magic. Ducking my head, I took a bounding step forward intending to rush the sylvan down before he could hit me again. Instead, I went sprawling to the ground as something yanked on my trailing foot! "FUCK!!" I shouted, scrambling back up as the rain of strikes paused. When I was on hands and knees, a streak of movement in the corner of my eye made me look up to find the knife Sil had given me flying hilt first into Faolin's open hand! That's it! Playtime is over!

The sylvan must have seen my mouth opening wide because his eyes flashed again, and I felt something like an invisible hand covering my lower face. Reacting on instinct, I bit down hard on the unseen obstruction and was surprised to meet resistance as my teeth caught something and dug in. Faolin swore in pain and shook his still bound hands, and my teeth clacked together as the sensation over my face vanished. Taking advantage of his distraction, I sucked in a breath and loosed a wild roar and a gout of flame toward, but not straight at him.

"Enough!!" I shouted, glaring at the sylvan over the swath of flames burning between us. His eyes were still shining silver, but no more invisible strikes came at me yet. He seemed uncertain, recognizing that I could have permanently ended the fight right then if I'd wanted. "Drop the knife, Faolin," I ordered sternly. "You can't beat me. Don't make me hurt you." He raised his hands to point the tip of the knife at me.

"What in oblivion do you want with me?!" he demanded, his voice and hands shaking with frustration and his ears pinned against his skull in fear. "All I wanted was for you to leave me alone! Just- Just go!" He slashed the knife towards Bird, who was watching from some dozen yards away. "Go back to Anea or your military already! You don't need me for that!" I opened my mouth for a retort, but just then I realized there was even more heat coming off the fire I'd set. Oh shit... A quick glance confirmed my sudden fears: the grass-fire was already growing!

"Listen," I said, taking a step back from the creeping flames, "This isn't really the best time to do this. How about-" I was about to suggest we work together to contain this fire before it got out of control, but Faolin chose that moment to bolt! "HEY!" I shouted, sidestepping the flames to give chase. 

He was fast! I had to sprint all out just to keep him in my line of sight. He probably would have escaped, but after about a minute, he picked the wrong time to glance back and check his lead on me. Without warning, he toppled into the thigh-length grass, apparently tripping like I had. He tumbled forward an impressive distance, and instead of springing back up and continuing his flight, he just stayed down and let out a strangled howl of anguish. Fearing he'd fallen on the knife and stabbed himself, I put on an extra burst of speed to catch up. 

"What happened?" I asked, slowing to a stop when I reached him.

"Just... leave," he groaned, refusing to look at me as he held his bound arms to his chest. He was still clutching Sil's knife, and it didn't seem to be bloody. So that couldn't be the source of the crippling pain gripping him. That was when I noticed the sleeve covering his left wrist and remembered the arm he'd broken back during our first fight was still healing. I kneeled down a couple steps back.