Date: Mon, 8 Jan 1996 00:52:13 -0600 Reply-To: Ninianne Sender: Highlander TV show stories From: Ninianne Subject: Daddy's Little Girl part 17/21 Sorry it's been a while, but I've been doing the ol'go home and hibernate on IRC routine. Tomorrow I get to drive back to campus, through snow, in the 'stang, fun, fun, fun, not! You should see in now in the driveway, it's covered with unseasonable snow. It normally doesn't snow except in March or April, for once it snowed when you would thing it would. If you have any problems getting this, blame my new P133 (hehehe, *power*, hehehe), it has Win 95, *ugh*, luckily I have some DOS install disks around here, hehehe, maybe I'll be back to normal in a few days. I hate Win 95!!!! the nightmares of it's idea of file manager, luckily I found the win 3.x emulator on here. At least Eudora and the 16 bit winsock still work, if it didn't back it would go to the factory!!!! Enough o'my rant about operating systems, on with the story. Samantha ******Part 17****** Chris made her way around to the far side of the beach, still in sight of the cabin, but only just. She started to make her way up the hill when she noticed something she didn't see everyday. There was a deer stopped up ahead. She hadn't seen one up this close except in a state park. This was something rare so she went back to where she had last seen Grace so she could share it with her. She found Grace near where she had first spotted her. Grace wanted to see the deer, so they ran back, in the hopes that they hadn't missed it. Halfway back to the deer, Chris heard a loud crunch, then a little swearing. It seemed that Grace's foot had found a rotted out tree stump the hard way. Chris went back to help her, thinking that there would be plenty of opportunities to watch deer in the future. Grace had sunk her left leg in up to the knee, messing her ankle up in the process. Since they were in an area that was thick with trees, not to mention logs and more holes, they decided that the best way to get her back would be piggy back, it would be more trouble than it was worth to just help her walk it off where they were. When they returned to the cabin, Mac got up from the table and rushed over to help. The two of them helped her over to a chair at the table. He took off her shoe and sock to check her foot. "How'd you manage to do this?" "I Was running to catch up to Chris and stepped into a hole," she paused and looked at Chris, smile wryly, "You know if your legs weren't so long, I wouldn't have had to run so fast to catch up." "Hey, don't go blaming me, I wasn't the one who stepped in the hole," Chris defended. "Both of you stop. Someone get the bucket out of there," he pointed to indicate the storage room, "and get some water out of the lake to soak the foot in," he looked back to Grace, "Your foot will be fine after a few days rest. It is only a bit strained." He set her foot in one off the other chairs, and stood up. Richie had gone to get the water, the lake water being colder than the pump water, it was the next best thing to ice water. He returned a few minutes later. Grace slowly set her foot into the water, it was really cold and made he foot go numb. Within minutes, the pain had subsided and she stopped wincing. Since it was nearly noon, Mac went hunting in the storage room for some food. He found some cans of beef stew, which he emptied into a cook pot then hooked it in the fireplace to cook it. When it was ready they ate. After they finished Mac and Richie got stuck with cleaning up. Grace was already getting cabin fever from not being able to get around very well so Chris dug out a deck of cards so she could play solitaire or whatever else she wanted to play. She managed to get Andrew into a game of poker. Since everyone else was occupied, Mac had Chris change for practice. After she changed, Mac pulled out an old sweatshirt that looked like it wouldn't be the first time that it would be used for this purpose. As they left, each with a sword in hand, Andrew looked up. He wasn't surprised that MacLeod had given her a katana. MacLeod seemed to favor that weapon, it made sense. Andrew himself still used a basket hilt Scots sword, it had been in his family for a few generations before it came down to him, it was one of the few things that he still had that reminded him of his father. Although the man he called father probably wasn't, as all the Immortals he'd ever met, never known their real parents, the man did raise him, that itself was enough for Andrew Balfour. Alan Balfour had given him a name, a family, and a history. He was lucky. So was Chris. MacLeod was one of the best swordsmen that Andrew had ever known, if she learned half of what he had to teach, she would likely give anyone a real fight. As they closed the door, his attention returned to the game at hand, Grace had a really good poker face, he was loosing miserably, he was glad that they were only playing for points and not for real. Outside, Mac and Chris were making their way to a clearing that was further inland, it just wouldn't do to have a hunter on a neighboring island see grown people having a sword fight. Mac's plans for this lesson were to let Chris get a feel for the weapon and to teach her some basic moves, tomorrow they would get into some of the more advanced techniques. They arrived at the clearing. Mac stopped and had Chris stop a short distance away. He began by showing her some basic guards and defenses. At first she was a bit awkward, between the unfamiliarity of the strategy and the weight of the weapon, she had a double whammy. After a while though, she began to get the feel of the sword, she learned the way it balanced and the little nuances of how to time her moves so that it ended up in the right place at the right time. The weight stopped bothering her once she learned how to hold it in a relaxed ready position, one that could quickly move to defense as needed. The weight hadn't bothered her much to start with however. She was well over six feet tall, her height afforded her more strength than most other women. She also regularly carried a very heavy bookbag, filled with all sorts of junk. After a while Mac noticed something. Chris moved with a natural grace. The way she moved it was smooth, not jerky, lots of conserved motion. He didn't know if it came from her years of ballet or if it was truly natural. It didn't really matter though, she had some and that was all that really mattered. He took her through a few basic drills to get her to apply what she'd already learned. It gave her a chance to see how it all fit together, the whys and wherefores of this style of fighting. She watched and learned, quietly absorbing what Mac had to show her. Her quiet concentration pleasantly surprised Mac. After drilling for quite some time Mac decided that they should actually try a little combat. They exchanged blows for a few minutes, each getting a fair number of wounds. Chris was learning just what kinds of things she could do and what she couldn't and Mac was trying new variations on tried and true moves. The first time she managed to cut him, she stopped dead, shocked that she had put a gash in his arm, forgetting momentarily that it would be fine in a few minutes. Mac told her not to stop and not to apologize. The fought on for a good ten minutes longer, stopping when Chris pleaded exhaustion. While they were resting, they sensed the approach of another Immortal. Mac merely looked around trying to get a first glimpse of whoever it was. A few moments later, Andrew emerged. "I thought I'd make sure that the two of you hadn't managed to kill one another, you've been gone quite a while." "Well, we're still breathing," Chris replied. "Yeah, I can see that. Hey Duncan, after you've rested up a little more, what'd you say we show her how it's really done." "O.K. Ready when you are." Andrew grinned a little. He took off his coat, in the process drawing his sword. He handed the coat to Chris as he stepped forward to meet Duncan. Chris's jaw dropped as she recognized the sword. She'd seen it hanging in her father's study the few times she was allowed in. He kept his study at home locked and private, seldom letting anyone else in. Chris was beginning to understand why. He probably had things in there that would be difficult to explain. Her attention turned to where her father and Mac were fighting. They were fascinating to watch. She sat on the trunk of a felled tree to rest her sore feet as she watched, she really hated any kind of tennis shoe. She could tell that MacLeod really knew what he was doing. When he had been fighting her, he didn't have to use a whole lot of his more advanced techniques, but now she could see that he was having to delve into a few. Chris watched with a practiced eye, one that had spent many hours strip side studying other fencers. Her father wasn't nearly the swordsman that MacLeod was which wasn't to say that he was bad, just less experienced than Mac, not to mention a bit rusty from successfully avoiding most other Immortals, or at least the less friendly ones. They just went on and on, even ignoring Richie's approach because they were so intense with their little show. Richie sat down next to Chris and watched the two _older_ Immortals practice. "How long have they been at it?" "I dunno. A while. Any particular reason you came up here?" "Well, when Andrew didn't come back, I got to wondering were you guys went. Not to mention Grace was cleaning me out at poker. Does she count cards or something?" "I'm not sure really, she's got to be doing something though. I learned that the hard way that you don't play her if you don't like to loose." "This I gotta hear." "Well a couple of weeks ago some of our friends got together to watch a movie on cable, but when the cable went out, rather than waste the candy and stuff we had gotten special, we decided to play for candy, and Grace won of course. She still hasn't finished off that bag of candy that she won. She won't let me help her 'cause I'm too willing." "Go figure." They returned their attention to the two fighters, they were still at it. A few moments later, Mac gave Andrew a nasty cut on the right thigh. Chris winced, knowing that it must really hurt. He staggered a bit, his balance off, Mac was definitely gaining ground. Andrew started to get a little sloppy as desperation for defense grew. In a few short moves Mac had him on the ground, disarmed. Mac helped him up, as he dusted himself off, Mac retrieved the sword from where it had been cast. " And you're worried about Chris. I think you might need to worry about yourself a little more. A hundred years ago, you wouldn't have fallen for that. I think you better start practicing again if you want to survive an encounter with Alexander." "He's that good?" Mac shrugged a little, "Not really, but it never hurts to be your best against an opponent." "I'll see what I can do. But this is rather short notice, I haven't had to fight anyone in quite a while. I think I've only faced a handful of Immortals since Chris was born." "A little work, and you'll be back up to speed. You still know how, you just have to bring it back to the surface again." "You're right. Now if I could just get Chris to unwind a little. She's really unsettled by this whole business about Alexander." "She seems pretty normal to me. How can you tell?" "I'm her father. Fathers know these things." "You're probably right. We probably ought to be getting back now, Chris and Richie already have." They made their way back to the cabin. Andrew went inside, Mac remained outside to replenish the supply of firewood. Inside everyone was passing the time however they could. Andrew was hitting those papers he hadn't been able to concentrate on the plane, he didn't know when the next time would be that he would be able to devote his full attention to them, here he was safe from anything, a great comfort to him. Grace had begun a game of solitaire, she couldn't coax anyone into a game of poker, she was just too good. Chris was catching up on her reading. She'd been trying to get through _The Count of Monte Cristo_ since shortly before the semester began and never could seem to get more than a few pages in a week. She was only about halfway through it, which was about 600 pages. Richie was busily doing nothing, mainly wondering why he came along, reminding himself that the reason was that he didn't want to be around town if there was a nasty Immortal running around. After several minutes of wandering around the cabin, he remembered that Mac usually took his laptop everywhere, he rummaged through Mac's bag and found it. He figured that there must be a brain rotting video game on there somewhere, there was just no way that Mac kept it around for strictly business use. But this was Mac, of course he didn't use it for anything else. he tried some likely subdirectories, but when nothing came up, he muttered to himself with displeasure. "You'd think that there would be some games on here, Mac can't be all work and no play!" Chris heard him, and remembered that she had her bookbag with her, along with a stash of game disks. "I've got a few games in my bag, I'd be more than happy to lend them to you." "What do you have ?" She got out two disks and read the labels. "They're all DOS though, Scorched Earth, a cheesy chess game, a volleyball game, and Wheel of Fortune." "Do you recommend any of them?" "Scorched Earth is O.K. .... so is Wheel of Fortune, the others are real dinky." Richie went enee menie miney mo and opted for Scorched Earth. When Richie saw that more than one player could play, he convinced Chris to play too, he didn't want to give the computer a lot of chances to beat him. Richie bought a lot of heavy artillery and no shields, Chris bought a few funky bombs and a shield. Richie ended up toast after the first round, one of the computer drones got him. Chris paid the offender back and won the round. The next round Richie did better, getting the hang of the game. They ended up only slightly different at the end of the game, Chris's score was slightly better due to longer experience with the game. As they finished the game, they noticed that the sun was getting ready to set, it being the fall, sunset came early, especially in the north, which was where they were. While they were engrossed in their game Mac had slipped in, putting a load of logs next to the hearth. He put another few logs onto the fire. He then went and began dinner preparations. Andrew finally was able to concentrate on grading papers and proceeded with that. Since everyone had had a lot of excitement, they had an early supper and then settled in for the night. No one went to bed right away though, just sat back and relaxed and talked. Later when everyone had gotten sleepy, then they went to bed. copelasa@vuse.vanderbilt.edu & COPELASA@CTRVAX.Vanderbilt.Edu http://www.vuse.vanderbilt.edu/~copelasa/ | "This isn't an Olympic event, there's no medal /~\ for comming in second." --- Duncan MacLeod Oxxxxx| (|=========================- \____/\_/ "I don't tan, I don't burn, I implode." | --- Nicholas de Brabant =========================================================================