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Stories from the Verse
In Version
Chapter 16: Slade 217
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Brown 248
Slade crossed blades with the Professor of War again, but this time the bigger and stronger human’s pushback was unsuccessful. A quick riposte by the Professor had him dancing to get clear of a shoulder shot. Now disengaged, he called a pause.
“How did you do that? I’m bigger than you.”
“Indeed you are. But I was reading a book on sword fighting, and I saw a technique.” Slade raised an eyebrow, and his Parakeet companion licked his beak. Understanding the implied question, he spoke again.
“This warrior from hundreds of years after you lived here found that he could lock his talons into the dirt, and lean forward into the blow, and stop almost anyone from overthrowing him, or pushing him back.”
“But I didn’t see you dig your toes in.”
“Look closer.” The Parakeet used his rapier to point out a dozen holes within a few square yards of each other--small holes, just right for slipping a talon down into them. It took Slade a half second to realize that the Parakeet had prepped these holes the day before. And then he burst out into gusts of laughter.
“Very sneaky, my friend, very sneaky.”
The Parakeet did not crow out his glory, but he did tilt back his head, and point his beak skyward for a second. But before Slade could consider the further implications of preparing the ground for an upcoming combat, the side door to the hangar crashed open. A bloody-headed Derek staggered out, and Slade found himself running toward the other verser. He spun, still running, and shouted to the Parakeet professor.
“Get Joe, and Vashti!”
There is a behind-the-writings look at the thoughts, influences, and ideas of this chapter, along with eleven other sequential chapters of this novel, in mark Joseph "young" web log entry #478: Character Conflicts. Given a moment, this link should take you directly to the section relevant to this chapter. It may contain spoilers of upcoming chapters.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
