Date: Tue, 1 Nov 1994 17:41:29 MST Reply-To: Highlander TV show stories Sender: Highlander TV show stories From: Wendy Milner Subject: Raven's Child (3/4) Raven's Child (3/4) Wendy L. Milner Copyright 1994 by Wendy L. Milner All rights reserved. He heard the familiar swearing of Ski. Taking a chance, he opened his eyes and rolled over. "Damn, I thought you were dead," Ski said. He pulled a knife from under his jacket and cut the tape from David's wrists and ankles. "Come on we got to get out of here." This time, David did as he was instructed. They got half way across the yard before some one came after them. "Run," Ski yelled at David as he tried to fight off the attacker. David ran a short ways before looking back. Ski was loosing the battle. David didn't know why he didn't take out one of his ever present guns, but he didn't. Instead, he was bare knuckling it and loosing badly. David tripped on a stack of wood as he tried to run backwards and watch. On landing, he felt a piece of rebar steel under his hand. Not thinking, he picked it up and ran back to Ski. The attacker was over powering Ski. David didn't stop his run. He hit the guy with the rebar across the back. It was enough to give Ski the advantage momentarily. "I thought I told you to run," Ski said pulling David along again away from the fight. When they got to the jeep, Ski steered David off the road. "Now you stay here," Ski said, "Hide off the road till you see either Johnathan or me. Don't come after us. I'm going back to help Johnathan. I can't do that and worry about you too. So stay." There was a rustling in the bushes. Ski got ready to fight before he recognized Johnathan. "That won't be necessary," Johnathan said, "Are you alright?" he asked of David. David nodded yes. There were police and fire equipment coming. Sirens and red lights. People everywhere. David stayed out of it as much as he could. When it seemed they would just keep coming at him, he closed his eyes and curled up on the seat. Eventually, the police let them go home. Once home, David washed off quickly, threw his blood stained shirt in the trash and put on a clean one. Ski took longer to clean up before Johnathan stepped in and doctored his face and hands. Johnathan hadn't gotten away without injury, but he waited till David was eating and settled before taking care of himself. "Thanks kid," Ski said as he watched David drink half a glass of milk in one guzzle. "You saved me there, and I was supposed to be doing that for you." It took David longer than that night to understand what had happened that night, to realize that both Ski and Johnathan had risked their lives to save his. He knew he should be dead, that their plan hadn't really worked, but he didn't say so. He didn't know what he should say. No one had ever risked anything for him before. That Johnathan had risked so much scared him more than anything he had faced before. David started to feel that maybe he had a chance. Inside he might be different from the other kids at school, but they didn't seem to notice. His teachers treated him the same as the other kids. And at home, he felt as if he had a home. That maybe it was permanent. There was a baseball game after school that David had been invited to join. He wasn't much of a player and wondered if there was some other motive driving the invitation. But the guys were just playing a quick unorganized game. David knew he had some leeway in when he had to be home, so he stayed for the game. He figured he did alright when a couple guys said he should join in more often. It was a good feeling. The feeling lasted till he realized it was getting late and he'd have to run to make it home before dinner. He knew a couple of short cuts. He threw his book pack over his shoulder and took off at a run. He cut through some yards, ran down some alleys, and then through a park along the beach. He was almost sure he was going to make it when he started to fell sick. It felt as if some one had just slugged him in the stomach. Then he saw the guy coming across the grass at him. David had seen the look the guy had before. The guy was coming for him. David didn't know who he was, but knew there was trouble. He ran away from the guy. He didn't know the park well, had only passed it by car, and got himself into more trouble by picking the sea side to run to. There was a cliff straight down to the beach. There was no path that David could see. He ran along the edge till the man ran in front of him. "Well, well, what do we have here? A runt," the guy said. He pulled an impossibly long sword out from under his loose shirt. "Doesn't matter to me. I'll take your head anyway." As the sword came down, David jumped. He felt the ground give way. He reached for the grass as he went down. Then there was rock sliding by his face. He floated in the air for a long minute before the ground came up and hit him in the face. As the air left him, the waves covered him and took him out to deeper water. After the blackness there was pain. David tried to scream and sucked water into his lungs. He tried to cough and felt his lungs burning. His eyes were filled with salt water. He screamed once more before loosing consciousness. The drift current took him down the coast before tossing him back on the beach. David crawled up the beach away from the pounding waves. He rolled into a ball and lay there till his body stopped shaking. Slowly he got up and started walking. He wasn't sure where he was. When he heard traffic, he left the beach, made his way through some brush and found the road. He walked another half hour along the road before seeing a sign he recognized. He wasn't so far from home now. Johnathan was going to be mad. For once that didn't bother him too much. He knew that Johnathan would ask what happened. What could he say, some guy jumped him with a sword, he fell off a cliff, drowned and then walked home. Who would believe that? Johnathan wasn't there when he got into the house. A note on the table said that Johnathan was out looking for him. He should call the cellular when he got home. Dialing took most of his remaining strength. He slid down the wall and sat on the floor. "I'm home," he said when Johnathan answered. "Are you alright?" Johnathan asked. David hesitated before saying yes. He supposed he was fine. There would be no scars this time either. His body had already healed itself. Nothing would tell of what had happened. Johnathan didn't like the way David answered and drove back home much quicker than the law allowed. He found David still sitting on the floor next to the phone. "Come on," Johnathan said when David looked up at him, "Let's get you cleaned up." David's clothes were wet and filled with sand. As David stood in the hot shower, Johnathan looked over the torn clothes, pulled out a few pieces of sea weed, and wondered what had happened and why David had gotten away without a scratch. The next day David went to school. Johnathan was all for keeping him home, but David said he was fine. Physically he was. Mentally, he was wandering. He didn't do very well in class that day. Afterwards, he was invited to play again, but no one expected him to join in. He would have gone home, except that when he started to leave the school he felt sick again. Looking up, he saw the guy waiting in his car. David went back into the school building. There were other ways home, but he suspected the guy would follow him. He went to the administration office. "There's a guy hanging out, out front," he said, "I've seen him following kids as they leave a couple of time. I don't think he belongs." It didn't take long for the police to show up, hold onto the guy and let David slip away home. The next day he didn't want to go to school. The initial lie David was going to tell died under Johnathan's hard look. "So what's the real reason for not going?" Johnathan asked. David didn't mean to tell the entire story. He certainly wasn't planning on saying he'd fallen off a cliff and drowned. The more he didn't say, the safer he was. Only some how, Johnathan induced David to include more details until everything was said. When Johnathan rose from the couch, David sank back in his chair. David knew it was all over now. Whatever Johnathan had put up with before, he would loose his temper now, accuse David of lying, and then beat on him. Johnathan had listened to David's recital without judgment. He knew there were many facts that David left out the first time through his story, and he had tried to get David to say more. He hadn't expected to hear such a wild tale. Yet all the facts fit with what Johnathan had seen over the past year. David had injured himself grievously, and then healed without medical intervention. It was only a matter of extending belief a little to think that David could survive a fall that would kill most men, survive being drowned, and recover with no permanent physical harm. Still, the matter at hand was not whether or not David could sustain such injuries, but rather getting David to school safely. "So you think this guy that chased you will be waiting at school for you again today?" David wasn't sure what to say. He hadn't expected the question. "He was there yesterday," he said. "But you told the school, and they called the police. Seems to me that the guy wouldn't want to come back to the school. He'd just be picked up again. I'll tell you what. I'll take you to school and pick you up afterwards. That way you can be sure he won't follow you. Go get your things, you're already late." David was unhappy about being at school, anticipated the stranger's return, and was totally confused about Johnathan's reaction to his story. No anger or violence, no argument or denial, just a calm acceptance that set David back in his thinking. He just didn't know how to react. **** Duncan MacLeod stretched his long frame as he walked out of the first class section of the Boeing 747. The flight from Naritta Airport had been long and uneventful, which meant boring and tiring. Even the first class seats were too small for the number of hours you had to spend sitting with nothing to do but watch last month's movies, read out of date magazines, or work on the papers he had brought with him. He looked forward to a few days resting in the warm sun of Hawaii before returning to Seacouver which reports said was currently cold, rainy and continually overcast. After checking through emigrations he picked up his duffle bag and went through customs. A smile at the customs official and a seemingly willingness to open his bag brought him a casual wave to move on through the line. It was a relief as he disliked explaining the katana which lay wrapped within his clothes. After picking up his car, he drove to his hotel. He was already making plans in his mind. He had an old friend who he thought still lived on the island. He would call Matthew up and see if they could meet for dinner and talk over old times. It had been several decades since they had last met. As he thought about his last layover in Hawaii, he felt the closeness of another immortal. Looking through traffic, he homed in on a man in a jeep driving in the opposite direction. There wasn't time to do more than identify the driver as a stranger, and briefly see a young boy in the jeep with him. On seeing the boy, Duncan relaxed a bit. Most immortals that decided to have families were not head hunters. They were just looking for a period of peace and reasonable normality in an other wise chaotic life. Duncan certainly wasn't looking for heads on this brief vacation. David felt the sickness again. The stranger who chased him was some where close. Looking around, he didn't see him, but David knew he wouldn't be far. He held himself still until the feeling went away. And because it did go away, he said nothing to Johnathan. He would go on to school and perhaps the stranger would not make an appearance. It could be as Johnathan said, since he had been picked up by the police once, he might not come back there again. Duncan did not let the presence of another immortal ruin the day. After checking into the hotel, he looked through the telephone directory and found Matthew's name and phone number. There was no answer at the house. Rather that call up the store, Duncan took his shower, changed and drove out to the mall where the phone book said Matthew's store was located. The mall was sparsely populated at the early hour. Duncan strolled through the wide lanes, window shopping for nothing in particular. He saw a necklace that Tessa would have loved, and felt a pang inside that was slow to go away. He knew it would be years before just thinking of her would not cause pain. Twelve years had been so brief a time to know her. He had known before getting involved with her that she would not be with him for long, yet he had not been able to stop himself from falling in love. She had been such a beautiful spirit. The feeling of another immortal nearby made his hand automatically move to the inside of his light jacket where his katana rested. He looked through the window of the next store and saw a seemingly young man perform the same hand movement. Grinning, Duncan moved onto that store. "Is that anyway to great an old friend?" he said as he came through the door. "Duncan, you old coot. You're enough to give a young man a heart attack," Matthew said. "I seem to recall you have a few years on me," Duncan said. They reached out hands to shake, and ended up in a hug. Then for an hour they talked in between a few customers. They made plans for dinner once the store closed. "Watch your head," Matthew said as a parting word. To Duncan is sounded a bit more than the usual caution. "I'll tell you about it over dinner," Matthew added. So life on the island wasn't all surf, sun and hula girls, Duncan thought. Anymore, there was no safe refuge from the Game. Even without looking for trouble, it would come to you in the form of a shadow in the night, an unsuspecting visitor, an old friend turned bad, or even a child in trouble. Duncan was tired of fighting those he knew. All he wanted right now was a few days rest. He settled for a short swim in the hotel pool, a long sprawl on a chaise lounge, and a cold drink from the bar. When lunch rolled around, he dressed in the loose casual clothes of the natives, and went to a deli for a corn beef sandwich. Afterwards he walked through the sidewalk vendors and tourist shops. However, after a short time, he grew tired and went back to the hotel for a nap before dinner. The directions he had for the restaurant were fairly clear, yet he still got lost. He blamed it on the long day started early in Japan, the long flight, and the short nap. He might have been better off just staying awake. Now he was lost, wandering through a residential district rather than anywhere he might find a restaurant. He pulled off the road into a parking lot by a park. Looking around he saw a phone booth. It would be quicker to call than to hope for divine intervention. David was afraid to be left alone in the house. He was sure the stranger would show up. So when Johnathan needed to run an errand that evening, David went along. Johnathan took David's request as a sign of trust that Johnathan would take care of him. It was progress in their relationship, and he had a moment of pride. Heading away from the house, they passed the park where David had met the stranger. Even at a distance, David could feel the stranger waiting for him there. He couldn't see anyone, but he knew the stranger was there. Johnathan saw David look towards the park and assumed that David was just remembering the incident. Duncan felt lucky that he was only fifteen minutes late for dinner. Matthew had waited in the bar for him and was already on his second bourbon. "A toast to friendship," Matthew said when Duncan received his own drink. "Life's been tough," Matthew said later after they had been seated and given their menus, "There's been an immortal running around determined to clear the island of any other immortal. And he's doing a pretty good job. Two of my friends have already died." "I wouldn't have thought there were that many here," Duncan said, "What have you done about him? Who is he?" "His name as far as anyone has figured out is Kono. It must stand for something, but I don't know what. He comes out of the jungle apparently, attacks and then disappears. And he's not just satisfied with killing the immortal. He'll kill the entire family if there is one. I had to send Lorane off to the mainland on some excuse just in case he came for me. I never was the fighter you were Duncan. If I was, I'd hunt for him. As it is, I just hope he doesn't find me. This use to be paradise, a place of peace, almost a refuge for immortals. Now it's just a killing ground." "And I thought I was here for a vacation," Duncan said. "You can still enjoy it. Just keep your sword handy." The waitress came to take their orders, forestalling any further discussion. After she left, Duncan turned the talk to what he hoped was more pleasant topics. "So tell me about this Lorane," Duncan said, "You sound pretty close to her." "For the last dozen years," Matthew said. Duncan thought of Tessa and their years together. Twelve years was a very short time. "We were married about five years ago. She knows about us. Life was pretty good until now. Of course, she wants kids. We've been planning to adopt, but now, I'm not so sure. You and I, we don't exactly live a safe life, do we?" Not safe. Duncan had always known that Tessa would leave before he did. He hadn't considered that such a random act of violence would take her before her time. With recent events in his life, he wouldn't say for sure that any mortal would die before him. It was as if the Gathering had already started. The hunting immortals were out gathering all the heads they could. Friends were turning on friends. Nightmares from the past were coming out to haunt the living. He envied those who could find any comfort at all in the companionship of others. Duncan had envisioned a congenial evening with a friend. Instead, old memories rose to plague him. He was relieved when the dinner was over and he had put Matthew in a cab rather than let him drive his own car home. Too many drinks had passed for Matthew to drive himself. Duncan had only sipped at his own drink, knowing that if he let himself, he could easily slip into a morose mood that would spoil what remained of the vacation. He drove back to the hotel still thinking about the conversation, and got lost again. He conjectured that the fates were steering him wrong when he found himself near the same park as before. The problem was, he didn't know how he had gotten there the first time, so he couldn't retrace his steps. He drove down the winding road he was on, noticing that the ocean was just beyond the houses. The houses were spaced far apart with large lawns, screening hedges, trees, and privacy fences. Duncan got the impression of money for such large ocean front lots. David sat up in bed. He could feel the stranger approaching the house. He dressed quickly and went into the living room. Johnathan looked up from his book. "He's coming," David said hoping Johnathan would believe him one more time. Johnathan had heard nothing. Still, he picked up his katana and walked out onto the porch. He walked around the house, relying more on his ears than on sight. There was normal traffic in the distance, the ever present waves on the beach, and then a break as if something had come between the ocean and the house. Was there a shadow approaching? Johnathan placed himself between the porch and the shadow. He knew he was silhouetted in the light from the house. The shadow came closer, gained substance, and held a sword. It laughed at Johnathan, raised the sword and attacked. Johnathan parried the attack and came back with his own strike. He grazed the man's arm, bringing a red slash of blood. The man ignored the cut as if he could feel no pain, and came back more ferocious than before. There was a moment when Johnathan felt fear. He had fought many men with swords. The calm collected attacks were dealt with precisely. His own mind was always clear in battle. He had never fought an animal before, and this man seemed more animal than man. Johnathan retreated under an onslaught of attacks, barely maintaining a defense. Still, his mind worked to analyze the fight. He began to see the patterns. He began to hold his own and then press forward. =========================================================================