Chapter 13 – The Gathering of the Magic

Chatper 13 – Gathering of the Magic
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Last time on BTL: Arzenal and Wasser bantered back and forth as more dark creatures were made. We visited the ruined house of Grace and learned more of the battle between the elves and dwarves. After a comfy sleep in a sleeping bag, Grace and eng were silently greeted by an Anti-Paladin or “Ty Paldeen” in Acadian. Gunblaze arrived feeling a presence drawing him there which possibly thwarted any bloodshed. Now, it’s time for Magic.

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“Crap, or get off the pot!”

“I’m thinkin’!”

“It takes you longer to think than it does to take a dump. Now play, cuz I’m ready to unload on you sissies!”

Gunblaze looked over the playing board and then at his cards. Playing board. Cards. Board. Cards. Situated around him were Burnsy, Jupe, and myself each holding onto a hand of cards, some with sweaty hands, others with foreheads that had a bead of sweat forming. Eyes darted from hand to player to get any clue on what each was going to do on their turn as we waited for Gunblaze to make his move.

Gunny started to count the number of creatures Burnsy had on the table. He drew a card and then inhaled a load of air.

“OH! MAMA!” He pointed at each of us in turn. “Yer gonna git it! Oh! Poker face! Ah, hmm. Yes.”

He slowly reached down to his mana pool and turned eight cards to the side. “Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Taptaptaptap.” He held a card up high for all to see and then slammed it onto the creature area. “W-whu….WAP! That’s the sound a Kraken makes when he enters the game! You will all pay for your insolence! Bow to me mortals! Surrender now or I’ll…”

“Counterspell.” I said while tapping two blue mana cards which rendered the summoning of the Kraken nil and void. I had up said counterspell card for all to see and lightly put it in the discard pile trying not to smile too large.

Gunblaze looked at me and then my counterspell card. Me. Counterspell. Me. Spell.

“…or I’ll extend my middle finger at you!” And he did so…at me. This left Gunblaze defenseless with no monsters to protect him.

It was Burnsy’s turn. Arm wrapped around the back of the chair chewing on a toothpick, he had a wry sneaky smile pasted on his face as he drew from his library of cards. “Eh heh heh. Oh yeah.” Burnsy looked at us. “You know what, boys, this calls for a celebration. A celebration of one.” He reached underneath the table and started rattling around in his bag.

“You better watch out where you’re putting your hand, boy.” growled Jupe whose Black weenie deck had him close to dying. Burnsy’s demon deck was currently winning followed by my angel deck and Gunblaze’s Lord of the Pit deck was close behind me.

“Listen, Homophobeman, after this card is shown, you’ll want me to place my hand anywhere on your body because you’ll believe me to be God.” Burnsy turned nine mana on their side and brought out a Minion of Leshrach.

“OH!” Gunblaze shook his finger at Burnsy. “Oh! Yer it! You are the man who has the scariest monster out and thou wilt mine monster avenge me! You will get the finger of Fred the gargoyle!” Gunblaze turned a plaster gargoyle which had its arm and finger protruded straight out as if to point to someone or somewhere. Gunblaze aimed it to where Fred pointed right at Burnsy, signifying he was “it”.

“Thou wilt die quickly and painfully if thouest keepest that talkest up!” Burnsy also pulled from his bag a round aluminum can. “I’ve been saving this baby for the right moment.” He placed the can on the table and slowly turned it so we could see the label.

We gasped in awe.

It was the last Big K soda can in existence.

“No way!” cried Jupe. “Where in hell did you get that?”

Burnsy just slowly nodded his head and cackled. “You girls are jealous, ain’t ya?” Burnsy cracked his knuckles. “Tell ya what I’m gonna do.” He sat straight up in his chair and surveyed the playing area. “I fear Jupe’s paltry deck like I fear getting a yeast infection, Gunblaze just played his big dick monster and went crying home…” He look at me. “So, I’m going to wreak havoc over in angel land.”

Burnsy had eight little wasp creatures, a fallen angel, a frozen shade to attack with, and the Minion for defense. He tapped the fallen angel and the frozen shade to attack and brought them into the middle of table. I had a lone archangel for defense.

“Oh, and before you bring out your poor little angel for defense, I will sacrifice my eight wasps to the fallen angel making her 19 power and 11 armor.” said Burnsy as he put all the counters onto the fallen angel. My archangel was only 5/5.

“Oh! And before you start weeping, I’m going to tap all my swamps to pump up the frozen shade to 8/8. And…AND…” *fwish* he opened the can of Big K, “…and I’m going to open my can of whup-ass in your direction! OH! MAMA!” He got up and did a violent hip thrust dance. “How did YOU! like it! right there! baby! UH UH!”

I looked up at him calmly. “Is that all you’ve got?”

His mouth dropped and he froze in mid-hump. “What? Is that all? That’s one of the manliest, awesome, biggest monsters I’ve ever generated! And you ask if that is it?!”

“You sure you don’t want to pump them up anymore.” My eyes dropped to the archangel and then looked at Burnsy. Angel. Burnsy.

His eyes started to search around and he looked at the cards he had in his hand. “Waitaminnit waitaminnit! Quit shittin’ me! You putting that angel up for defense to be squashed or not?”

I started to count the number of cards he had laid down in the playing.

“What are you doing?” his voice cracked.

I didn’t look at him. “Nothing.”

“Look, damn ya, defend or die!”

I slumped back in my chair and exhaled to ponder the situation. I sat back up after a few moments.

“I’ll let them through. Unguarded.”

“Then die!”

I had twelve mana left to use. 4 blue, 4 white, 2 black, 2 green. Plus 2 fire diamonds that produced red mana.

“Ok, here we go, fanboy!” I tapped two mana.

“Here’s a terror to destroy your frozen shade.” I tapped another mana. “But since terror doesn’t affect black creatures here’s a sleight of mind to change to ‘does not affect white creatures…thus destroying it.”

Nine mana.

“I’m letting your fallen angel through.” I tapped three more mana.

“Here’s a reverse damage so instead of taking nineteen damage I gain 19 in life.”

Six mana.

“Here’s another terror and sleight of mind to destroy your fallen angel.”

Three mana.

I tapped two more mana. “Here’s a remove soul to get rid of your Minion of Leshrach”

One mana.

Gunblaze tapped his last two manas.

“You can’t get away with this! Here’s a counter spell to nullify your reverse damage!”

I squinted my eyes at him.

“Oh my paladin. My beautiful heroic paladin. How sly you think you are when I see that you are out of mana…”

I tapped my last land.

“My last trick of the evening ladies and gentlemen is a ‘force spike’ which renders a spell useless unless he or she has another mana left. And, oh my…he doesn’t.”

There was a dreadful deafening silence. One to where I had to reel in my outstretched arms because I felt like I may have to block an oncoming fist with them.

Slumped over the table Gunblaze reached for Fred and rotated him until his finger was pointing at me.

“Yer IT now.”

The board was completely empty of creatures except my archangel. I looked around Gr8’s modest living room/kitchen. Although it was the season of Flight (Earth’s Autumn) and was still warm during the day, a fire was simmering in the huge fireplace in which all the furniture surrounded it. I was always used to seeing a TV be the centerpiece of a family room and this was a nice change of pace. Instead of listening to a box spatter out useless information and products in thirty second increments, I watched Chuck, Gr8, Grom, HS, and Dirt (only for a while) carry on conversations about religion, ethics, and politics. Butress was teaching one of Gr8’s grandsons the proper technique of how to hump using a chair as a control point until Grace shooed him away.

Over in the kitchen area, Grace and her little sister Tessa, were cleaning up the dishes. She had been scowling at me ever since Gr8 elected her to wash the dishes we had dirtied. Pouring salt into the wound, we were playing games in plain sight of her, which may not have been a good idea now that I think of it.

Glancing at my cards, my turn had begun and my mana pool had replenished.

“Ok. A lightning bolt to kill off Gunblaze, a four point fireball to finish off the *snore* manly goblin deck of Jupe’s and my Archangel will walk over and *tap tap* with two giant strengths on him will, yes, WILL kill Burns E. Boy’s little demon deck.”

I looked at my three opponents. “Any questions?”

“Yeah.” said Chuck from his seat. “When are you ladies going to bed, because we’re getting up early and moving on.”

I glanced over at Grace who had stopped drying a dish. In fact, she was dangerously close to dropping one on the floor.

“Feh.” gurgled Jupe. “Who needs sleep? All a man needs is a good woman and a good drink and I can stay awake all night!”

Laurel, one of Gr8’s youngest girls came into the living room. She tugged at Jupe’s furs.

“Mr. Hairy Man, your milk and cookies are next to your bed and you have dad’s feather down pillow.” She held out her hand.

Jupe darted his eyes around and dug into his pocket and revealed a gold piece which he put into Laurel’s hand. He shooed her away and scooted quickly out of his chair.

“ShitboysI’mtired. ‘Night.” He said quickly and stepped out of the room.

“Well, I’ll tell you what I’M gonna do.” said Burnsy as he stood up. He snatched his Big K from the table. “And that’s enjoy the last cola beverage on Acadia…alone!” He grumbled something about terrors and sumbitches and left.

I looked at Gunblaze. “Am I sleeping with you tonight, handsome?”

“Nope.” He said putting his feet on the table. “It’s going to take me most of the night to get my armor back on.”

I smiled and turned to Chuck. “How much longer?”

“Two days max. Gr8 and Grom have mapped out where to go into the entrance to the dwarven mountain. From there on, who knows.”

I nodded my head. I knew that Grace was looking at me. She had tried to convince me to stay on several occasions, but I just wouldn’t hear of it. She didn’t understand that this group had been through the absolute worst of times and when one of us had a need, all of us went to help in any way.

So acting like a coward, I got up without looking at her, although I knew damn well those brown eyes were boring their way into my skull trying to give me some of her common sense.

I walked into the far bedroom and slammed my winning magic deck down on the bed. This was not what I had imagined nor expected. I had told myself coming onto this planet to not let my inner emotions go astray. We lost one home based on the fact that I couldn’t think straight. I was not going to lose control.

After checking my belongings and packing most of my clothes, I blew out the lanterns and crawled into bed. Even though I knew I needed the sleep, it was one of those nights where the brain was running at a hundred miles an hour. Thinking of home, earth, Chicago, the disciples, vampires. All interlinked into my mind’s eye, color blasting my senses.

I heard a click and the bedroom door opened slowly. I had become comfortable enough at Gr8’s to not be alarmed and brandish a sword. I knew Grace’s outline as soon as she came through the doorway. She didn’t say a word as she closed the door. Her nightgown flowed as she walked to the bed and lifted the covers. I scooted over to give her some room and she laid down. Putting my arms around her I squeezed. Turning her back to me she held onto my arm. As we lay, calming our minds and souls, I cursed her silently…

Damn you, I’m beginning to get the feels.

And as she drifted off to sleep, I let her warmth seep into me and her breathing comfort me. The images started to slow and my thoughts were just on the person with me. Listening closely, I was able to memorize the rhythm of her heartbeat. I would never forget it.

-Next….”The Twins!”