A Night on the Town

[Snoring Moose]

.
Rain again.....................god this town!

A shiver in her back.............cold................teeth clenched


There is a slight shake in the right hand. She pulls back the hand and squeezes it twice into a fist, stretching the fingers inside the skin-tight gloves. The hand is tired....stiff and sore, a danger.

A shake of the head, two deep breaths.......A third..... She realises how tense she is and what the stress is blanking out of her mind.

god.....shit........am I really going through with this?

another shiver

again she wipes the rain out of her eyes

right.....comeonArty......concentrate.


The hand returns to the lock.

Her mind smiles.....................Ah-ha!….so that’s why i stopped just then – its trapped!
Her face joins in the smile.....God i’m good.

The left hand snakes inside the pocket on her thigh, finding the second tensioner. As the hand comes up, the forefinger spins the tiny tool around the thumb…is it play…or practice…or excitement? “because I can” says the hand….she listens to it, as though it is not part of her.

Now that the trap inside the lock is unmasked, it is easy prey. A moment in time and it’s no longer a concern. Another moment and the lock eases back, the action kept silent as she contains the snap with slight return pressure from the hook.

She straightens.

The glance up and down the alleyway is wasted energy, she already knows she is unwatched.

The tools are back in the pocket. And now the hand holds the hilt of a long slim blade. She talks to the blade, through the hand. Words of love and comfort. “you are beautiful Elia, and too, too quick,......killingly quick, too quick even for me”

then to herself...“we’ll be fine".......Another shiver.........."god, I hope we will be fine”.

The side of her right foot feels the foot of the door, the shoulder and hip lean against the damp wood, the upright blade just touches her forehead as she listens at the door. But her ear tells her nothing, except that the wood is warmer than the rain.

Another breath......a moment’s relaxation of the shoulders.......a shift of the grip on the rapier

god


godArty..........you’ve no idea what’s in there.......are you really going through with this?


the left hand takes hold of the doorhandle........a twist, release............a brief dance, the door moving back before her, her body caressing it as she smooths past.....her pulse and mind race....godArty, whatreyoudoing?....you’ve got absolutely no idea who’s waiting inside here……



But now, at least, she knows that there is someone.....A voice says "What The?"..........a chair scrapes

Her mind explodes into action........"godArtywhatthefu...."

But her mind cannot keep up......the heart leaps forward, a team of horses.....and faster than her heart, her body. She is committed now......outside any plan, any control of her own fate and fight......Her speed and grace a marvel to herself, her mind can only watch, a stunned passenger holding fast on a tiger striking in the night........

And yet still faster is the blade.....as though the weapon itself is the attacker, the elf-maiden's body only following its line, there only to balance and propel........As her body cartwheels and rolls across the room towards them, five men, flat-footed, fight to gain their stand and reach their weapons.

Anything can happen in the next seventeen seconds.