- Home
- Firebirds
Chapter 10 – Racing Horses
Then she turned her attention back to Matt. He was still holding the gun in her direction. Leering at her as if waiting for the slug to tear through her. His look slowly turned to one of disappointment as he saw it missed her. She stepped over to the knife and reached down to pick it up.
From Aurora’s point of view, she wasn’t moving very fast, but everyone around her seemed to move exceptionally slow. From the men’s point of view, Aurora’s movements blurred together. They heard the gunshot. They saw her spin away. Then blur down to pick up the knife. And finally, standing right there in front of them. So effortlessly.
Matt tried to swing the gun around. He jabbed the weapon in her direction and pulled the trigger. But the girl was no longer in front of the gun. She had disappeared. The slug shot out of the barrel, causing his arms to jerk up.
The knife sliced cleanly through his wrist. His hand still gripping the gun for a brief second before dropping to the ground. It happened so fast that he didn’t even see it take place. Matt tried to wrap his mind around what he was seeing. One second, he was holding the gun, and the next second he was holding up a handless arm.
The weight of the gun pulled his other arm down. He let go of the gun and it fell to the ground. He didn’t even feel pain at first. As if the fact that his mind couldn’t process what was going on meant that it didn’t even know it was supposed to register pain.
Then, as if on cue, everything clicked. He understood that his hand had been severed from his body. The pain was excruciating. And he finally screamed. More in terror at the sight and rage towards the girl than the actual pain itself. But then the pain took over, and he slid to his knees, sobbing and groveling in the hay.
Nixon hadn’t waited around. As soon as he saw how fast the girl was moving, Nixon leaped on the horse standing to the side. He dug his heels into its ribs. The horse took off in a dead run. It was terrified by the ruckus and commotion. Ready to get away from the gunshots and screams.
Aurora watched Nixon ride toward the gate. The birds all seemed to turn in unison to watch him with her. She wanted to laugh at Nixon. It looked as if he and the horse were running through mud.
She glanced at her grandfather to make sure he was still okay. He was looking at her in awe. His eyes wide. Aurora smiled and patted him on the shoulder as she moved past him. She walked out through the open double doors, observing the dust rise lazily behind the horses’ pounding hooves.
As the girl bent forward into a run, the golden birds began to shoot out of the stable before her. Rocketing past her as she sprinted after the horse. The sunlight reflecting fiery light off their golden feathers. The shimmer made it look as if they were on fire. They were, and then they weren’t. Aurora wasn’t sure if their feathers were really on fire or if it was just the light playing tricks on her eyes.
Aurora didn’t feel like she was running that hard. It felt almost effortless. As if she were flying toward the horse carrying Nixon. Not even flying. It was more like soaring. The horse seemed to move so slowly that she caught up with it before it had gone another block.
She slapped the horse hard across the rump as she pulled up beside it. It was so surprised that the beast came to a hard stop. The horse dug its feet and skidded, throwing Nixon forward on the saddle as he tried to hang on.
But to Aurora, the beast seemed to be moving slowly. She watched Nixon struggle to hang on as his face slammed forward into the back of the horse’s neck. He spluttered and spat the horse’s mane out of his mouth.
The girl slapped the horse again. This time it kicked its legs out, throwing Nixon forward again. While Nixon’s momentum was propelling him forward, the horse was rearing up on its hind legs. Tossing him around like a rag doll.
Aurora slapped the horse again as it reared up. And it bucked and jumped until it had thrown Nixon over its head. Nixon landed on his back, the breath knocked out of him. But before he even hit the ground, he could see the girl already standing there, waiting for him to hit the ground. He watched her as he floated past her.
Then he got the wind knocked out of him, and he couldn’t breathe for several seconds. He tried to get up, but her fist cracked him on the side of his jaw. Three blows before he could even blink. Nixon screamed in pain. Her fists pummeled him up and down his body, his ribs, his sides, and his stomach.
Continue Reading Chapter 11 – Golden Bird
Chapter 11 – Golden Bird
Nixon begged for mercy. To Aurora, she wasn’t even moving that fast. She punched him, but he didn’t even groan. So she punched him several more times. After about the sixth or seven blow, Nixon finally started screaming. She stood up and waited for his brain to process the blows.
When he stopped writhing around on the ground, Aurora gave him one last kick for good measure. Just as he had done to the dead boy. Nixon didn’t even see her foot coming. He only felt the explosion of pain in his side.
“Please, don’t kill me,” he begged. “Please, just let me go home.”
Aurora picked him up by the nape of his neck and dragged him back to the stable. To her, it seemed as if she were walking normally. To Nixon though, it seemed as if someone had tied him to the horse and were dragging him through the street at a full gallop.
Grandpa and the stable boy’s mouths dropped when she dropped Nixon in front of them. They had seen Nixon yelling for mercy way down the street, and then suddenly he appeared at their feet.
Aurora dusted her hands off as the golden birds slowly began to fly away. She smiled at them as they went. The red light of sunset gleaming on their fiery golden feathers. Finally, only the original golden bird was still there. It chirped quietly as the sunset.
Grandpa and the stable boy helped her tie up Nixon and Matt. Matt was still blubbering about his hand as he clenched it, trying to press it back onto his wrist. They waited for the constable to show up. He seemed nervous when he saw the two men, and they glowered at him. Aurora wondered what he was going to do, but the sheriff was there.
The constable did his duty of placing them under arrest with the help of another colleague as the sheriff questioned grandpa about what had happened. They told Grandpa pretty much everything except the part about Aurora’s transformation into whatever that had been.
Grandpa had a reputation around town as a man not to be trifled with, and the sheriff had seen Aurora compete in races and fights. So, it didn’t seem to bother him that an old man and his granddaughter had beaten up two other men.
To Aurora’s surprise, the stable boy didn’t say anything, either. He just nodded and backed up grandpa’s story. Aurora thanked him after the sheriff and the constable had left.
Aurora and grandfather walked down the street toward their home. Grandfather finally asked her what had actually happened during those brief moments of the scuffle. She tried to tell him, but it was hard to explain. In his mind, everything had happened so fast that he had barely seen Aurora moving around.
“Look, that looks like the bird that came out of the clay jar. Only it’s a lot bigger than the jar. I guess it couldn’t have been that one.” Grandpa said, pointing to the golden bird that followed them down the street, still chirping and singing.
It surprised Aurora that he could see it, too. She had thought it was still just a part of her imagination since grandfather told her he had seen none of the other hundreds of birds that had flown into the stable.
“Yeah, it sure does,” she said with a smile. “Do you think if we take the pieces of the Firebird Jar to the Goulbern Mountain that your friend Lort can tell us what it is?”
Grandfather shrugged. “Maybe, but sometimes it’s more fun to figure things out for yourself instead of looking to others for answers. Give it a few days. You’re a smart girl. You might learn more just by observing and questioning things. If others provide all the answers, it can take the mystery out of life.”
Aurora paused at the steps to their home.
“Yes, sometimes a little mystery and adventure can be fun. But not too much. No more getting poisoned and beat up by bad guys. What are you going to do with the gun?” she asked.
“Play around with it. Observe it. Ask questions about it. Maybe I’ll hand it over to the sheriff. Maybe I’ll keep it in case Matt or Nixon come back and you’re not around to protect me with your golden firebirds.”
“Oh, I’ll be around. Don’t worry. I’m not leaving your side, Grandfather. At least until I get married.”
Aurora gave her grandfather a hug and squeezed him tightly.
“But even then I’ll still protect you when you need it.”