THE SLIDE Part 4

Chapter 50: Redux Dogfight Part 2

Fantasy: Two Dragons, An Airplane, & A Beam of Light

Recap

Marie Bissett, Nikos and Hrez appeared in light beams on either side of her. They fully materialized in the natural protected space of Ouroboros as the dark shadow she-drake dragon back, between her wings.

Kuzma, Maria, and Ra were in the plane having avoided an impact on the ground were climbing on the edge of the vortex’s cyclone.

Farha and Sophia, daughter of Nikos, were on Ouroboros of the Light, while Zed was gone.

Acceptance at last, the voice uttered.

“Who is that speaking?” Ra wondered aloud. All nine heard him.

“He or she is the messenger.” Hrez was certain of it as speech left his lips.

“The voice is at once familiar and foreign,” Farha remarked.

“Quiet,” said the voice of Mustafa, the storyteller. “This voice is a rare opportunity few are granted and you attempt to return to fibble-fabble of your reason. This human voice is connected to the being you call Vortex. Listen…”

The Two Zeds

The Magistrate’s team found a badly injured body on the edge of the vortex. When they brought the unconscious body to the hospital staffed by Ninkla healers, a few French healers and two Obz shamans (indigenous peoples of the region), it didn’t appear that he would survive his wounds.

A group of Scarlet Service (SS) soldiers were ordered to stand guard around Zed’s room by A and Q.

Inside the vortex at the center of the island, stood the man engulfed in a beam of pulsing white and yellow light. Ninkla explorers and indigenous Obz peoples hugged the shoreline where the walls of the crater went high. They could easily view the small island at the center of the lake and the enormous beast occasionally raising its head above the water. While the Ninkla explorers were fascinated with the man inside the light beam, the Obz were laughing and amazed with the compact figure attached to the beast swimming in circles around the island. The figure was a young Zed of eight years, tucked into one tentacle of the novopus, Ombolo. He was laughing and smiling.

After the third day of Zed’s rescue, in the hospital with many healers, he began a recovery. Three more days, he made what the healers called both an impossible and miraculous recovery and was ready to return to his duties. A met with Zed at the hospital for a complete update and a plan to use an untested submersible device through tunnels into a central lake believed to be at the eye of the vortex. An elite group of combined forces totaling eight guerilla fighters that came to be known as the ObzKotch (two local warrior shamans and the infamous six Kotch fighters from the Western Confederacy).

The Two She-Drakes and the Plane

The two she-drakes using polarity dynamics could dive at each other breathing fire each time. But no harm was done.

Sophia jumped from Ouroboros Prime to Ouroboros Secundus, while Nikos jumped to Prime.

In the mountain range that ringed the fabled-community in a clearing surrounded by pure quartz crystals, Mustafah sat inside the beam of light at the center. It was wide enough to encompass his girth and stretched into the sky above. Mustafa levitated within the beam, cross-legged with his arms outstretched, palms cupped slightly upwards. His four fingers on each hand flicked from outside to inside.

Kuzma, Maria, and Ra were the first to appear in the clearing. Next Farha, Sophia appeared, then Nikos, Marie, and Hrez materialized. Eight of the original nine were there.

Mustafa spoke to them through their minds, hearts, and bodies in a holistic telepathic manner:

I called you here because while half of you have experience with deadly combat, it’s only on a one-to-one basis. While you are all peoples of peace, you know nothing of coordinated physical combat; it will soon be necessary. You will face deadly force both as a group and individually. This means you could be killed and the mission will fail. You must fight fiercely while defending your lives and threatening death to the others that would kill you while not harming them leading to their death.

To put it simply, you must fight as if to the death of the opponents who will arrive shortly without killing them.

Mustafa faded from view, and they were left in the clearing. They all looked at one another except Hrez. He was smiling. Kuzma lit up, as did Farha.

“I see a vision,” Hrez said. A moment later the vision appeared in everyone’s being. A path was set and clear.

They reappeared on their aligned conveyances:

Marie Bissett, Nikos and Hrez on the second shadow Ouroboros; Farha and Sophia, daughter of Nikos, were with Ouroboros of the Light; Kuzma, Maria, and Ra were on the plane — still ascending.

Convergence

The plane continued to climb while the two Ouroboros-es circled each other in a figure-8 pattern within the vortex at various angles and vectors.

On the small island in the middle of the crater’s lake, the beam around the man grew wider and more intense. It was growing as if alive. Soon it would consume the small island and some of the surrounding waters.

The submarine with Zed, the elder, and the ObzKotch elite fighters were sucked into a descending tunnel and pulled down quickly. In the depths of the crater lake, the sub emerged from the tunnel. It began its ascent towards the surface on its own. The upward motion was slow at first.

The plane spiraling upwards around the girth of the vortex nearly reached the extent of breathable air in the atmosphere. It was freezing cold in the cabin. Kuzma kept warm from the glow of the instruments, while Ra generated some light, at least enough for the two of them. Kuzma remembered Tem, and the hydraulics remained warm enough.

Tem was in his thoughts. Kuzma adjusted the flaps, cut engines to conserve fuel, and went into a steep dive.

The shadow Ouroboros descended quickly, whipping Ouroboros of the Light in her wake, and plunged towards the center of the vortex on the ground.

The plane fell precipitously. Three quarters of the way down, Kuzma restarted the engines, and the plane was pulled into the vortex and like the two Ouroboros-es descended in three golden yellow arcs.

Ombolo swam in a figure-8 pattern, including the island with the beam of light and the center of the lake with increasing speed. She — Ombolo — was included in an intense electrical field created by the widening beam of light from the island.

The Obz and the Ninklas were agog and transfixed with wonder along the shore.

Just as the submarine-blow shot from the depths, the three golden yellow arcs hit the water. There was an explosion of light.

The submersible craft was torn apart by the light. Zed, who had been crammed into the nose or bow, was hurtled through the air and was “caught” by Ombolo and joined eight-year-old Zed. They merged as one. The eight ObzKotch warriors were jettisoned from the shredded submarine and thrown outside the radius of the electrical aura of the still growing yellow light beam with the man inside. Two of the ObzKotch tried to swim through the electrical field but were killed. The other six swam to the shore.

The original eight dove or fell into the water: the two Ouroboros-es and the crashed plane plummeting underwater about thirty feet. They were within the electrical aura of the still growing light beam, which had completely consumed the small island and a nineteen-foot diameter around the island.

The two she-drakes merged into one glorious dragon and flew up out of the water breathing fire amidst clouds of steam. The eight popped up to the surface.

The light from the beam consumed the eight, Ombolo and continued to grow. When it reached the shore, it popped.

The golden light went everywhere.

The previous chapter:

Chapter 49: Redux Dogfight Part 1

Fantasy, The Beast That Eats Its Own Tail

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An Index of Parts 1 and 2:

The Slide: Contents — parts 1 & 2

And An Introduction

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