========================================================================= Date: Mon, 11 Mar 1996 22:44:53 -0500 Reply-To: "Sean A.Simpson" Sender: Highlander TV show stories From: "Sean A.Simpson" Subject: Shapes in Shadows 3/4 See part one for disclaimer and copyright notice. Shapes in Shadows by Sean A. Simpson Part Three I massaged my shoulder. "I noticed," I said with a wince. "Ah now, did she put you through the paces?" Angus smiled slightly. "She likes to do that to new friends." "How many of these friends does she keep?" Angus laughed. "Well, lad, you'd better go home and stretch out before you stiffen up." I nodded and waved goodbye. I heard Angus singing the Irish ballad again as I went out the door. ********* >From the journal of Terence O'Brian, dated 1/9/93 Angus called me over today to "appraise his weapons collection." I'd thought he meant to look over his accumulated belongings as an antique dealer, but as soon as I arrived at his house and heard the sound of clashing steel coming from his practice room, I guessed he had something else in mind. When I entered the room, Angus was standing at the edge of the mat, smiling his slight smile. Fei and Seiichi were going at each other maniacally, looking like they really were trying to take each other's heads off. Angus turned to me as I entered with a greeting. He gestured towards the dueling spouses and said, "That's how they resolve marital problems. A rather unique solution, wouldn't you say?" I nodded wordlessly. Seiichi broke away from Fei and put his hand up, which she nearly sliced off before checking her swing. "Enough already," Seiichi said, "I'm thirsty." Fei giggled and set aside her weapons, a rapier and main-gauche, while Seiichi walked over to a refridgerator in the corner (which I'd never seen before) and got out two bottles of water. Seiichi's weapon was what looked like a ninjato, but it had to be as long as a tachi. Seeing my pointed gaze at his weapon, Seiichi handed one of the bottles to Fei and strode over to me and Angus, holding the sword out for my approval. It was beautiful. Folded steel, long, razor sharp. Thirty inch blade, thirteen inches longer than the ninjato I was familiar with. "Where did you get this?" I asked, holding the sword reverentially. "I forged it myself. Folded two-hundred fifty times. Its name is Inochi o Ataeru, which means, roughly translated, 'granting life.' I named it that in the hope that it would not be the cause of much death." I nodded and handed the sword back to Seiichi. He took another swig from his water bottle and set it on the ground, and then walked to the center of the mat. Then he sheathed the sword and took a deep breath. What followed was simply one of the most beautiful sword kata I have ever seen. Seiichi was truly a master. He ended the kata with a graceful, simple, sheathing of the sword that could have taken fifty years to perfect, the highlight of that masterful display of skill. Angus, however, nodded slightly and said, "Your form still needs a little work. The angle of the sword was as much as a degree off in several places." Seiichi nodded. "You are correct as always. Now shall we let Terry watch us amateurs duel, or are _you_ planning to swing that overgrown sword of yours around a few times?" Angus laughed. "You shall pay for that one, whelp." Angus chose a claymore the same size as the one he'd shown me in my apartment the night we met, although it clearly wasn't nearly as fine a blade as that one. He put it through a few practice swings, and then stripped his shirt off to reveal a truly impressive physique. Not big, but incredibly toned, broad shoulders and a six-pack stomach, not a visible ounce of fat anywhere. He then stepped onto the mat and bowed to Seiichi, who drew his sword and returned the bow. Now, I should make a note here, a claymore is a truly enormous weapon. The blade of a claymore can be as long as fifty inches, with a hilt thirteen inches long and a crossguard a foot wide. It is truly a two-handed weapon, yet also light, weighing only a few pounds more than a katana. Angus and Seiichi circled for a few moments, and then closed. Angus was incredibly fast, and Seiichi was nearly matching his speed. The sheer size of the claymore was slowing Angus down somewhat, it seemed, but not enough to make a difference for Seiichi. Seiichi was a skilled swordsman, with nearly a thousand years of practice. But Angus had had four times that to learn, and it showed. Seiichi's blows were blocked at every turn. He was fast -- I couldn't even see his sword except as a silvery blur -- but Angus was faster. Seiichi was breathing heavily -- he was still feeling the effects of his battle with Fei -- but Angus hadn't even broken a sweat yet. Then I heard a tremendous "KAI!!!!" come from a forgotten corner of the room, and Fei charged towards Angus, rapier whirling for a disabling blow. Angus suddenly disarmed Seiichi, blocked Fei's attack without turning, and then thrust her sword to one side as he turned around. Fei immediately came at him with a dizzying combination of blows, and Angus lost some ground. By this time Seiichi had recovered his sword and was looking for an opening to attack Angus. Meanwhile, Angus had his hands full keeping Fei from running him through. She was using one weapon to try to parry and push aside Angus' claymore while slashing or stabbing with the other weapon. He kept pulling the claymore back and blocking, but it was clear that unless he did something, she would connect eventually. Then, suddenly, with a move I didn't think was possible for a two-handed sword, Angus flicked Fei's main-gauche out of her hand, and then pushed her back until he decided to quit playing and simply disarmed Fei. Then he started to swing at Fei's neck for a beheading blow-- --which came into clanging contact with Seiichi's ninjato. The swords locked for a moment, and then Angus grabbed the hilt of the ninjato and lifted while sweeping Seiichi's feet, and Seiichi went down, his sword clanging to the floor three feet from his hand while the blade of Angus' claymore came to rest at his neck. "Do you yield?" Angus said with his slight smile. "Of course. What choice do I have?" Angus turned to me. Recovering from my entrancement, I applauded. "Well done, well done!" Angus bowed and put his claymore back on the rack. "What say we get something to drink?" "So, where did you learn to fight like that, Angus?" Angus smiled his slight smile. "Lots of different places. Italy, France, England, China, Japan, Korea, Germany...the list goes on. Fei studied in Japan, China, Italy, and France, under some of the best martial artists and fencers the world has produced. Seiichi studied first in Japan, then China, and moved on to European schools only later on in his life." "Why does Fei fight with rapier and main-gauche?" A clash of steel and a yelp of victory from the practice room indicated yet another win for Fei. Angus shrugged. "You would have to ask her to know the exact reason. But it's probably the same reason I fight with a claymore, and Seiichi with his modified ninjato. It's that the weapons are a part of us, that they represent something special and unique in our experience. Seiichi told me that his ninjato, to him, is a reminder of what he once was, but that its greater length inspires him to aspire to the ideals of the samurai, and not the expediency of the ninja, which is why they carried a short blade. I carry my claymore because it is unique. It represents me in a very real way: it is an amalgam of East and West, a representative of everything I've been through in four millenia. "When I was in Scotland those four hundred years ago, I was searching for a reason to go on. I was suffering from the ennui that sets in after so long a life, and I wanted to die, or find a reason to go on. My life with the MacGregor clan gave me a reason to keep living, keep going, to keep fighting toward the time of the Gathering and the Prize. They reminded me of the value of life, of what it meant to live and to love, something I'd nearly forgotten by then, and without that, I might have become a creature like the Kurgan, a slave to the Game, with no other objective in my mind than to gain the Prize. Or I might have given up and fallen with a bowed head to the next Immortal to walk along, giving up my power and my life in one fell swoop. "But the point is, my claymore represents that love and that life that I found there, and as long as I live, that blade shall be my companion when all else is gone." Suddenly Angus straightened up, looking around like a wolf sensing prey. The sounds of dueling from the other room ceased. Angus reached under the kitchen counter and pulled out the real beauty, his claymore named Ath-bierte ann Dochas, and opened the door. A young-looking man stood there, apparently in his twenties, and he was holding a broadsword. He looked at Angus appraisingly and said simply, "I am Thomas Hughes of London and I have come for your head." Angus regarded him for a moment. "I am Angus MacGregor of the clan MacGregor, and I have no intention of losing my head." "Are you going to fight me, MacGregor, or shall I strike you down here and now?" Angus was silent for a moment. Then he gave Smith an address and told him to meet him there in one hour. Smith nodded and left. "Are you really going to fight him, Angus?" Angus was silent for a moment. "Yes. I have no choice." Then he busied himself getting his coat, arranging it, hanging his claymore inside it, and then he turned to me and said, "Lad, the Gathering that I told you of is fast approaching. The last of the new Immortals were born a few years ago. The Gathering may last another ten years, or it may end in a year, or it may not end for centuries. I must fight him." "How do you know that?" Angus regarded me coolly for a moment. "I just know. I don't doubt that I will beat him. But to doubt him so much as to think I am unbeatable is folly. If I walked around with that attitude my head would be long gone." ============================================================================== Sean A. Simpson -- Trekkie, X-Phile, Highlander, etc. stsas02@moravian.edu http://www.moravian.edu/people/students/stsas02 Rogue FW for Duncan and Methos Head DFW for the first Highlander Gathering bearing a @}-`--,--- and a /| O====[]=====================-- \| "rathlaHebj wa' neH" (There can be only one -- Klingon) "Pat Buchanan is somewhere between Archie Bunker and Hitler's Bunker." --- Michael Feldon