"Magriel!" a voice in the crowd shouted, which made Mags turn around.
She was scanning the faces, and then an old familiar face caught her eye
and made a smile brighten hers; like a sun going supernova.
"Gabby!" Mags replied. She stepped forward and the two old friends embraced.
"I
didn't know you were here," Gabby stated as she stepped back and
looked more closely at her. "It's been a long, long time since we did
something together."
"Come on," Mags said. "Let's have a coffee and do some catching up."
Max stood amongst the crowd around the memorial. The sun had
broken through the clouds earlier and brought down a ray of light upon
the group. Both the sun and the clouds were dancing that tango, that
tango of a crisp Autumn day. Being thankful that rain wasn't showing up, although it would be fitting.
A bugle sounded off in the
distance and many heads were bowed in unison, out of respect for those
who had perished, from wars long ago and not long ago. Pretty placed
his hand on Max's shoulder. "How goes it pal?"
Max gave him a sideways glance. "Glad to have you here."
"Wouldn't
miss this for the worlds," Pretty replied; he had on his greys, with no
medals; he wanted to be part of the crowd. "My name would have been
carved in stone with Morris and Thandlerude if it wasn't for you."
Max
smiled upon hearing Thandlerude's name. He remembered when he was sitting
at post, and Thanderlude would be leaning back and playing his
harmonica, and old blues song. Max could hear the song in his head but
he had forgotten the name.
"Thandlerude," Max repeated. "What was that song he constantly played?"
Pretty
thought about it for a few seconds. "I really don't know. But it was a
haunting melody. I think it was an Otis Rush tune."
The bugle was
done and then a little girl stepped forward and spoke into the mic. She
was repeating a poem that was written many years ago, about a field. A
field where flowers grew among the dead.
"I am going to look into
it," Max said. He felt the vibration of his cellphone, but he made no attempt to answer it. He could talk later, now was the time of
remembrance.
Mags was tossed like a rag doll; she went flying up and over the trees
about 300 yards away, came crashing down hitting branches and
bouncing off a couple of trees along the way.
It wasn't the first
time and it probably wouldn't be the last time that this sort of thing
had happened.
She hit the ground with a sickening thud and lay still
for several seconds before she lifted up her head.
"Ow," she
muttered to herself. She began to pick herself up and shake the
dizzying feeling from her body. Glancing around to see if she could see
her katana. It was stuck in the ground, like a marker of sorts.
She
saw it just a few feet from her and picked her battered and bruised body
up, staggered over to the sword, and headed in the direction where
she was thrown from.
She picked up the pace a little and upon
leaving the tree line she bolted towards the combat. Max, Angst and
Frank where still engaged with the robotic beast that towered 30 feet
tall.
"It's my turn now," Mags whispered to herself as she brought up
her katana and sped like a demon across the field to her intended
target.
