James Thulin
EARTH CHIEF, page 102


When they soon returned to their virgin love nest, a dozen villagers still lingered and so they shooed them away. The moment they were gone, Rainbow dropped her simple tan garment and stood nude, back against the bedside wall with expectant eyes. She raised her left knee and pulled it to her breast while Lone Hawk shed his clothes, appreciating her form in the fire's soft light. He braced her raised knee to his chest and felt his raging staff ease its way into her moist spread, following with gentle thrusts. They maintained the upright position with lunging kisses and made love to lasting completion, her knee to his armpit in full quiver. Then they fell sideways onto the new bed and giggled over the fact their pleasures did not even require it.

"We have never laughed and been so happy as this night," Lone Hawk declared with a loud, smacking kiss to her lips in their joyful embrace. "The scourge of unpleasantness has passed and now the truly good days have begun!" They tossed and tumbled, with her sore rump of no hindrance to their lovemaking that took a sporting twist into a 'positions' marathon. Engaging every which way, they completed an incredible three more fun-filled sessions and during the sweet kisses that followed they fell into quiet slumber.

His first bit of tranquil sleep in a long while lasted deep into the night, yet it was to end with a peeping of tragic familiarity from outside the lodge. Undeniably, Screecher was alarming him to the presence of intruders, using the identical call of warning, which he had used for the Toltec ambush. Lone Hawk awoke with an innate grasp of his deadly sword as he rolled off the bed ready to fight.

"Do not go, Lone...please, do not go," Rainbow pleaded in a dreamy whisper as the light of the moon shone on her face through the coarse hemp shade. "Shhh, the bird will go away..." She drifted back to sleep, as if her will had been swept away by the moon glow.

"Do no worry, My Sweet," he reassured his unconscious beauty with a stroke of her cheek; "there are the reinforcements from the north shore on patrol, but I cannot ignore Screecher's warning like the last time. When I see that all is well, I will return to your arms." He kissed her unresponsive lips and went into the night of the peeping Screecher, perched in a nearby tree with a most disturbing demeanor.

"Screecher, I apologize for that barrage of stones yesterday, but, with that attack of yours, well," he said, clumsily, what first came to his still guilt-infested mind as he looked at the squawking hawk, then cleared to the chase, noticing his unrelenting intensity. "This is serious! Show me, Screecher. Lead me to the intruders!" Reunited for a most suspenseful investigation, Lone Hawk followed Screecher in good faith beneath his tree to tree flight, which drew him out of the valley, southeast to the cornfield of the markings. As he approached the area, with the confidence of the reinforcements whom he had directed the day before, he soon lost all sense of security. A plague of deep sleep had befallen the entire military unit.

"Screecher! You have done well alerting me to this. Why do their torches burn bright while they all lie asleep? Or, do they lie dead!" he cried as his hand slapped the nearest guard's face, relieved that it was warm with an active neck pulse besides, yet he remained not rectifiable. "What is wrong with them? Are we the only two who can defy this? Who was that?" The chirp of the crickets suddenly fell to an eerie silence when he caught a glimpse of someone in the forest. Out of the corner of his eye to the right and then the left, there were at least two intruders, so he held his sword in a defensive stance, sighting nothing astir. His perplexity over the sleeping guards and the presence of others that seemed to disappear gnawed at his tactical decisiveness. He was sure that an elaborate trap had been set for him, yet he also felt that his Earth Force bestowal would provide the victorious edge.

"Show yourself, cowards!" he shouted into the forest as he began to pace the field's perimeter past another guard, snoring like the wind. "I was told that you would be here and, though you have taken the guards, I am ready for you. Through me, the Chosen One, the mighty Earth Force will unleash its powers! Come out of the woods and face me!" Amidst the silent treachery, the nondescript human figures flashed in the brush, side to side and, as before, his scouring eyes could not locate the ghostly opposition.

However, something of the tangible finally did present itself in an object that seemed the hatchling of the Earth Force sphere. From out of the forest in a careening pattern, a glowing red ball about the size of his fist came to him with the finessed flight of a dragon fly and hovered well out of reach above his head. After a moment of its stationary posture, the floating orb descended and circled its subject while Lone Hawk tried to slash it with his heavy sword, yet every swing was dodged with impeccable agility. His savage, vain attempts were not only discouraging, but tired him immensely. So, to conserve and maybe allow his energy to rejuvenate, he merely kept the impetuous ball at sword's length, with its brilliant lava light reflecting on the blade.

After going round and about, his matching its every move, the one he sensed as an anti-Earth Force demon messenger returned to its original position. Too high to touch, he could only watch with his weapon readied as it grew brighter and began to hum like a mosquito. The high pitch of its emanation grew steadily more intense and soon became ear piercing. He dropped his sword...