Battle of the Desert
#1 of Character Royale
This is the first short story from a game I created to test my creative writing capabilities. The rules are simple,each player gives me 1 power, 1 character (as detailed as they choose), and agree on a time period or location. The powers, and the character are pmed to me (or posted publicly) and the time period/location is discussed by the players. I then write a story (battle, romance, etc.) scene for the characters based off what I am given. If the players like the story, it is posted Here.
This is the song that is to be played (looped) while reading. http://www.yourepeat.com/watch/?v=ouBn_B6rB48
Battle of the Desert
The blazing sun beat down on the temple city of the Eternal Twisting Path, belonging to Apep the Bringer of Darkness/Night, and its proud priestess led people. Bast, the head priestess of the Apep temple stood on the steps of her temple, ever vigilant for the sign of Ra's champion Rameses. Her spear staff, an endlessly looping snake topped staff with a sharpened bottom, rested easily in her left hand. Her gift was foresight or precognition, giving her the ability to see through the folds of time as easily as the snake god who consumed the light of order. Her vision foretold of this battle, but not its end, and it foretold of who she fought but not of how they fought. So it was a surprise to her when a shadow appeared from the son itself and smashed into the temple steps less than ten feet from her, raising a cloud of sand to sting across her flesh and billow out her robes.
Where she wore silver and black silken clothing that revealed almost as much flesh as they covered, with gems studded through her hair and woven in bands around her arms and legs against her dusky bronze skin, Rameses looked like a figure carved from bronze and soaked in the blood of his enemies. His arms were long and covered in feathers that captured the sun's rays and cast them about, as befitting one of his stature, while his legs were a bit shorter and stockier. Both were well marbled with muscle from years of training and tipped in elongated nails that formed like talons. His predatory eyes were yellow as the sun, burning with righteous rage and the passion of the sun, on either side of his hooked nose that looked so beak like. Long ebony hair cascaded over burnished bronze flesh and accented a chest that looked hard enough to turn a blade itself. He wore no clothing aside from a loin cloth the color of sand.
The two combatants stared at each other with aggressive looks that could peel the flesh from a normal human, dust swirling around them like mist, and a stillness that seemed almost surreal. It abruptly ended with a flash of bronze as Rameses launched forward, taloned toes digging into the sandstone to launch himself forward at breakneck speed. His hands crossed as he summoned his Khopesh, a sickle sword, to each of them and uncrossed them in a slicing maneuver meant to cut a foe in half. The image dissipated into sand in front of Bast as the real thing came forth, no longer a warning image, and struck at her. Ready now she brought up her staff, the treated bronze easily catching the blades in the center of their joint, lest they slice her tender flesh, and used a sandaled foot to kick the bottom of the staff so that the sharp point sliced up towards Rameses's inner thigh.
Quick as a darting falcon Rameses stepped back, sliding his blades up her staff to knock it off balance as he danced through the billowing sand, his wing like arms guiding him through the air as he moved, allowing him to twist a blade around for a backwards slice at her neck. Yet the cunning priestess used his original upward slice to follow around with her staff to block the blow. This saved her life but threw her quite off balance as the brutal strike pushed her forward, causing her to tumble across the hot sandstone floor. Using her staff she pushed up at the last moment of her tumble and bounced to her feet, using her left foot to sweep the sharp end of her staff back towards the charging champion of Ra.
Unable to change his course, after he launched forward, he brought one arm around to use the feathers as a shield, blocking the stinging point as well as riding the heated air currents to spin him off to her right. The momentum was, as before, was enough to allow him to flash out with a curved blade, this time aiming for the midsection of the priestess. Unable to avoid it, completely, Best threw herself towards the champion. Her action was a surprise that allowed her to bowl over the off-guard champion, sending them both into a tumble. His attack scored a light slice over the curve of her side of her back with the inner blade, but could find no purchase to rend flesh.
Rolling off the falcon like champion Bast sprang to her feet and attempted to slam the spike of her staff into the chest of the prone fighter. Years of experience, however, would not allow this fight to end so easily, and Rameses rolled over, taking only a slight scrape across his abdomen from the spike. Sweeping out a taloned foot he latched onto the priestess's ankle and yanked back, dropping her to the floor as he used his left arm to launch himself up. Dodging, a sweeping stroke the staff's blunt head, Rameses springboarded towards a pillar with his left arm and latched onto it with a crushing grip from his taloned feet and quickly caught the sun's glare with his feathers.
Momentarily blinded by the light, Best through up an arm and brought her robe up in a billowing arm to protect herself through obscuration. Tearing silk whispered through the dry air as bronze feathers sliced clean through the silk and along dusky flesh. Paper thin cuts wept blood in thin rivets down the dark flesh as the priestess used her undamaged arm to toss sand towards the hawkish face of her foe. Covering his face with a wing saved his eyes, but blinded him to the attack that came next. Only one who knew exactly his reaction could have perfectly threaded the spiked end of the staff through his guard and into the meat of his thigh.
She missed the major vein but caused her opponent to screech in pain and lash out with the back of his blade, smashing into the temple of her forehead and send her flying back. Quickly Rameses pressed bronzed feathers to the wound and gritted his teeth as the wound hissed and burned. His bronzed feathers, heated by the sun during the flight, seared his flesh shut to stop the bleeding. His leg was safe but now could not bear his weight lest he re-open the wound.
Standing, on one leg, he faced the priestess as she slowly stood, and narrowed his avian eyes. Her face was etched with a smile like a snake ready to devour a wounded hawk, but he was far from ready to admit defeat. Using his talons as easily as he might fingers, he spun in a circle, unleashing a flurry of feathers towards the priestess. Her staff spun quickly, deflecting the feathers, for the most part, as blood stained her leg and seeped into the sandy floor. Reaching behind his back, Rameses pulled a simple throwing stick weighted with stones, and tossed it at her.
She foresaw the fact it would miss, probably meant as a distraction, as he launched himself at her, weapons arched for an ending slice. Both were wearing down quickly in the sun heated temple, with the air flow of an oven, and as both had lost blood they knew this was the final attack for both. Lifting up her staff she prepared to impale the charging avianoid through the lower belly, which would allow her to use the blunt end of the staff to block his weapons. Or that was the plan until the stick slammed into the back of her skull after it had bounced off the wall. Dazed and off balance she watched as time slowed and the blades flew towards her neck.
Only to fade into sand as the arms shot passed her neck and the stone hard chest slammed into her, pushing her back against the pillar wall behind her. A strong taloned hand gripped her throat and pushed up her chin, greedy lips seeking her own with harsh dominance.
"I win again Bast, once more the snake fails to devour the hawk, and is only able to writhe in his grip as it swallows the light of day." His harsh voice was music to hear ears as the last vestige of their combat weary minds melted into carnal desire of bird and snake, entwined in the embrace of each other and the dark night.