Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 10:58:24 -0600 Reply-To: Joshua A Reyer Sender: Highlander TV show stories From: Joshua A Reyer Subject: Dragon's Luck, Part Seven X-cc: Neesan Dragon's Luck Part Seven By Joshua A. Reyer All right, for you new guys, this is a story about my own Immortal. It uses the movie rules for Immortality, but is not set in the movie universe. No characters from the series or the movies will make an appearance. *************************************************************************** China, Shandong Province 1610 A.D. Daniel regarded the white-hot glowing piece of metal. After two years of practice, he could fashion a decent sword in about a month. It was taking him a full year now to get this far on *this* sword. Daniel was fashioning a jiandao, a straight, double-edged thrusting sword. Ying Chen was expecting perfection with this sword, and Daniel knew, for his own sake, it had to be an incomparable blade. Still, after a year of working, it was getting tiresome. Daniel had folded the blade about 120 times already. Each time he folded it, it got harder and harder to fold again. But still, he worked at it, driving his hammer down over and over again, achieving almost a Zen state of mind as he blanked out the rest of the world, concentrating only on what he was doing. Ying continued Daniel's martial arts training. Each night, Ying would move a little faster and Daniel had to adapt. Daniel was amazed that after a year, Ying still had to the ability to go *even* faster. Everytime Daniel thought Ying was moving as fast as he could, Ying would turn up the speed a little more. The aches stopped a few minutes after their sparring matches, but the physical and mental exhaustion of the past year was taking its toll. "Crosby," he heard a voice say. Ying. Dropping the unfinished jiandao, Daniel walked outside. The attack came instantly of course, but Daniel was ready for it. He felt, more than saw, the foot rushing toward his midsection. Smoothly, without thought, he blocked it and counterpunched. When that was blocked, he followed up by a mid-level roundhouse spin kick. Ying ducked, and responded with a strike to the throat, his fingers extended in a wicked version of an eagle's talon. Daniel caught the wrist, twisted, turned, and Ying went flying overhead. Ying arched his back and landed on his feet, his momentum pulling Daniel up and over. Now the subject of the flip, Daniel bent his legs, arched his back, and landed on the ground with his own feet. Quicker than light, he smashed a kick into Ying's midsection, then followed it up with a spinning backfist. Ying stopped and looked at Daniel, surprise evident on his face as he wiped the blood from an already healing cut by his lip. "I've wanted to try that out on you for months, now," Daniel grinned. "Thank you, Daniel," Ying said, bowing. "You taught *me* a lesson today. I underestimated you. A foolish move for anyone to make, particularly our kind." Daniel rubbed the back of his neck, a constant reminder of the long hours in the forge. "Lao shi, the blade has been folded almost 150 times. A good blade need only be folded 70 times. May I finish the blade now?" Ying nodded in understanding. "You are impatient with what you do now, yes?" "Frankly, lao shi, yes, I am." In answer, Ying pulled a large sword out of his robes. It was a dadao- a greatsword. It was single-edged, and curved like a scimitar. Ying walked over to a rather large rock, near the forge. Taking the dadao, he raised it and cut. The rock split and a shard sprang from it. At least, Daniel thought it had been shard. Only when he picked it up and examined its smooth edges and even grain did he realize what Ying had done. The dadao hadn't splintered the rock, it had cut *through* the rock, cleaving off a small shale. "When you finish, and we practice with the blades, your blade must stand up to mine, or all our work is wasted. I personally folded this blade 250 times to get the strength it needed. For in the years to come, as we come closer to the Gathering, the foes will be tougher, and the blades, sharper. "When you are finished with the blade, along the road ahead, you must name your blade, as a gesture of respect to it, and to its predecessors. Understand?" "Yes, lao shi." Daniel worked on the blade several more months. He practically lived in the forge, coming out only to eat and sleep, and train. Ying was teaching him weapon forms, and he was becoming proficient in spear, the staff, and the battle-axe. His wushu was steadily increasing in proficiency. Ying and Daniel's battles were sights to behold, with both moving at near-superhuman speeds, blocking and fighting on instinct alone. What scared Daniel was that Ying explained that the speed was "close" to what Immortals regulary fought. With a bitter taste in his mouth, Daniel recalled his fight with Grady Quaice, and how Quaice had defeated him before the battle had really began. Meanwhile, Daniel was becoming quite a linguist. He spoke Mandarin Chinese fairly well, and the Honjing dialect was not too far from that. Japanese, Korean, Cantonese were all improving, but the regional dialects were harder to master. Still, he knew more Asian languages than any other Western man in the world. Having brought Daniel to this level of proficiency, Ying ceased to speak English at all. They communicated entirely in Chinese. "LAO SHI!!" "LAO SHI!!" Daniel stood on the step of the house and called, but there was no answer. Anxious, Daniel was particularly worried that he could not sense Ying. He had been gone when Daniel woke this morning. Daniel decided to look for his missing mentor. He decided first on simple scouting mission. No need to bring a pack of supplies, or weapons. Just check the surrounding area. There was nothing of this world that could naturally kill Ying, but he could be trapped in a landslide or something. The surrounding mountains had a habit of dropping rocks from time to time. If Ying *was* dead, then that meant..... No, Daniel didn't even want to contemplate that. The implications were a little too scary. Daniel grabbed a knife, used normally for camping utility purposes, and stuck it in his boot. He could go forever without food or water, so he didn't bother with any of that. Thus armed, he journeyed out. It was afternoon, and a breezy one. The sun was out, but ominious grey clouds approached from the east, threatening the sun with cover and rain. Daniel knew the surrounding area pretty well, having explored it during his free time for the last two years. He first made a perimeter search of the area 50 yards around the house, the absolute limit of his ability to sense Ying from the porch. He circled the area, each circle getting slightly larger. Soon, he was 300 yards from the house, and getting really worried. Eventually, he came to the clearing he and Ying used for wushu training. As he wandered in, he felt a start, and he almost gasped. Immediately, he felt the presence of another Immortal. "Ying Lao shi? Lao shi?" He heard a rustle, looked at the bushes, and then he heard a cry. A battle cry. A large, dark Chinese man came barrelling through the bushes into the clearing. He was wielding a large Chinese battle axe. There was no doubt in Daniel's mind that the sheer presence of the man determined him to be an Immortal. Daniel let out a Chinese curse, and dodged out of the way of the swinging axe. It cut cleanly into the ground where Daniel had been standing seconds before. Daniel countered with a kick, cursing his lack of foresight and not bringing a sword. There were at least fourteen in the smithy that he, himself, had made. His kick was banged away by the Chinese man, and Daniel followed up with a backfist. The mongol caught the punch and threw Daniel away like a rag doll. Daniel relaxed his body and hitting the ground, went into a roll. The Chinese man had finally freed his axe from the ground. With a cry, he swung the ax at Daniel's midsection. Daniel leaped up, ached his back, landed on his hands, and pushing up, landed back on his feet again, the axe passing harmlessly under him, meanwhile. The axe came whistling by once again, but this time, Daniel kicked. His foot connected with the hard wood of the handle, and the handle shattered from the force of the blow. The head of the axe went flying back, and embedded itself into the ground. Undaunted, the Chinese man drew a jiandao from the scabbard on his back. Daniel let out another curse. Now he was truly outmatched. The sword danced dangerously close to him, and having no choice, Daniel backed away. The Chinese man kept forcing him back, back until Daniel tripped over the battle-axe head. With a cry, he landed hard on the ground, the axe-blade slicing into his lower leg tendons. Standing over him, triumphant, the Chinese man prepared to deliver the final blow. *************************************************************************** Comments, anyone? You can e-mail me if you like, but I'd prefer if you sent them to HIGHLA-L. Maybe we can get some fanfic discussion going over there, hmmmm? =========================================================================