***
It was time and Grace and Boot set off to hunt the Drawl. Grace was wearing her new armour and Boot was dressed in his. They both carried their swords about their waists. Boot had instructed his scouts to wait just outside the area that he and Grace would be searching. When he gave the signal they would ambush any Drawl caught behind. Boot had hand-picked only the best scouts for this mission, those who had the ability to detect the enemy by pure sense alone. Scouts had been called back from active duty protecting humans for this mission. It was that important this being the first time they had a chance to do some damage to their enemy on their own terms. Damage the enemy was not expecting. Tonight was going to be a turning point, Boot could feel it.
***
Joyce and George sat beside Grace in the surgery preparation room. Doctors and nurses came and went chatting away amongst themselves. The anaesthetist was a very tall Chinese man called Dr. Lim. He came by to introduce himself and discuss his role in the procedure. Then there was the craniologist, the brain specialist, as well as the head theatre nurse. When the parents were left alone for a moment Joyce spoke to Grace.
‘I know you can hear me sweetie. You are going to be all right. You’re a fighter, just like your mum. You’ve been through this before and you did fine. Just hang on to your dreams.’
The orderlies arrived to wheel Grace down to theatre. Joyce walked with them as far as she was allowed holding her daughter’s hand then bent and after kissing her daughter on the cheek walked off towards the observation room. She took a seat with George at the back. Although she wanted to be there she couldn’t bring herself to watch. Grace looked so small on the table, so vulnerable.
***
It took less than twenty minutes to get into position. From their vantage point Scooter and the other scouts could see the tiny figures of Grace and Boot creeping from shadow to shadow as they inched closer to their goal. Scooter, Vintus, and Buso were all now armed with the new weapons. They looked just like the everyday weapons they usually carried but the men had been assured by Boot that these would be much more effective against their enemy. An enemy each member of the team knew well, having fought against them for most of their lives. But they had never been able to attack the Drawl on their home ground since the creatures had found a way of hiding one dimension up. Just like they did in the human realm, by hiding somewhere in the fourth dimension they could attack the humans at whim. Only when they did this, could the cats counterattack from the third dimension. Scooter didn’t claim to understand it. All he cared about was that tonight was payback time. He gave the rest of his squad the thumbs up, and then disappeared out of sight to wait. The final rays of the sun crawled back to the horizon and an instant later night was upon them.
***
The Drawl usually came just on dusk and tonight was no exception. As Grace peered out from her vantage point, scanning for any signs of activity, she worried she might miss it because of the failing light. She needn’t have been concerned. There was that familiar tinge of blue light and with a great rush Drawl started to pour out of an area of space in the middle of the field, there were so many of them Grace couldn’t keep up with the count.
‘Here they come!’ whispered Grace to Boot. ‘There are so many of them.’
The Drawl seemed to materialise out of nowhere. They bunched together in little groups as if waiting for something. After the last creature had come through, the light faded and disappeared. Grace kept all her attention on the spot the light had emanated from. That’s where the anchor would be, and that’s what she would have to find so that it could be destroyed, thus trapping the evil creatures.
The Drawl separated into groups and then departed in various directions. It had been decided by Boot that the best tactic was to allow them in, destroy the anchor after they had dispersed and then, hopefully, pick them off in small groups as they returned.
With Grace confirming they had all gone, Boot crept out from the shadows.
‘Let’s go!’ he whispered, and set off in no particular direction as he had no idea where or what he was looking for. Grace crawled on her belly out from under the boulder that had been her hiding place. She sprinted to catch up to Boot, and directed him across the field to where she had seen the blue light.
Grace was feeling around with her hands. She thought she would be able to see the anchor point but it hadn’t occurred to her that it would be so hard to see in the dark.
‘Where is it?’ hissed Boot, his seemingly bottomless reservoir of patience under stress.
‘I can find it, just give me more time!’ snapped Grace who was doing the best she could as she groped around in the dark. She didn’t even know what this thing would look or feel like. She just hoped she would know it when she found it.
It turned out that it found her. Grace walked straight into it, catching herself above the eye. It bit into her skin with a cold bite that drew a little blood. Grace let out a startled yelp.
‘Found it!’
Boot came rushing over.
‘Describe it to me!’
‘Well it’s cold, and it’s small. It’s about the size of a chicken’s egg.’
‘And where is it exactly?’ asked Boot, his hand already moving towards his sword.
‘It’s right here!’
Boot’s sword flashed in front of Grace so close that she felt a breeze of air on her fingertip as it moved past.
‘You could have waited for me to get out of the way,’ scolded Grace looking closely at her finger tip to see if any of it was missing. I’m sure he clipped some of my nail, she thought as she ran a finger over the rough edge.
‘Is it destroyed?’ asked Boot impatiently.
Grace looked up from her finger and examined the two halves of the anchor now lying on the ground.
‘Yup, it looks pretty dead to me.’ She gave it a kick to make sure.
‘All right now we wait!’ He gave a whistle that alerted his men that the mission was thus far successful, and that phase two was now in operation.
Grace and Boot began to retrace their steps to the cover they had used before the Drawl arrived. They never made it. There must have been some signal that was activated the minute the anchor was destroyed thus alerting the Drawl who were at the moment swarming over the ridge. They poured into the field and bore down on the two lonely figures.
Boot sensed the Drawl before Grace even saw them. He roared as loud as his lungs could manage and drawing his sword rushed forward to meet the invisible enemy head on. Grace now knew Boot was insane, every part of her body and mind was telling her to keep running towards cover. But maybe she was insane as well, because she found herself right behind Boot, her sword in her hand charging into a massive horde of soulless black monsters.
Scooter had seen Boot’s charge and had heard his battle cry. He leapt from his hiding place and, joined by his fellow soldiers, started to charge sideways across the field. He too could sense the invading menace. This was going to be one hell of a fight, a melee with an unseen enemy whose numbers far outweighed their own. If only we can make it through the night, he thought.
Boot’s initial attack caught the Drawl completely by surprise; they were used to seeing the cats in this dimension, but knew they couldn’t be seen. They were aware that occasionally a cat might sense their presence, but not one cat had ever been able to harm a Drawl whilst it was hiding in a dimension above theirs. So, if a creature composed almost entirely of energy had a face, the last look on that face would have been one of complete surprise as Boot’s shining sword cleaved it neatly in half. Boot didn’t stop with one. He could feel the enemy moving around him. He wanted to press home the advantage of surprise for as long as he could. His eyes were closed, and his mind was focused down to a razor’s edge. Everything was happening in slow motion. The only sound in his ears was the sound of his heart beating in sync with his breathing. He lunged, cut and slashed through half a dozen Drawl as they ran past him. The creatures, still not aware t
hat they were being attacked, continued to come. Boot could sense the destruction, the confusion in his enemy. He could sense something else. Something he had never felt before, for the first time he sensed their fear.
For Grace the battle was more personal. She could see the Drawl even in the dark. She could see the damage Boot’s cutting edge did when he caught a Drawl on the end of it. She could see the remains of their bodies on the ground. It was littered with armour and the gooey mess of what was left of them. Grace was in a desperate situation. Right in the thick of the fighting she had no choice but to fight back. She tried to recall what Boot had told her. Stance and weight hold the sword so. Grace took a deep breath as the first of the enemy moved in to attack and she swung her sword sideways almost cleaving the creature in two. Grace wasn’t as strong with her weapon as Boot and instead of dying at her feet it staggered off mortally wounded. Grace felt dreadful and a wave of nausea overtook her as she watched it die.
Scooter had led the charge with Busu and Vintus following down behind. They attacked from the flank and carved their way through an unsuspecting enemy. They had hoped to force their way through to join up with Boot and Grace in the middle. Things started off well, with their new weapons cutting and hacking through the horde of Drawl pouring onto the field, but now the surprise was gone, and the Drawl were starting to fight back.
To do this, however, they down to the cats’ dimension and this meant the cats could now see their prey. The Drawl fought the feline warriors with their sharp limbs, some of them carrying large flat swords of their own. Most, however, had never bothered to carry weapons on these skirmishes, as they had been untouchable until now. Those with swords fought back with matched brutality, but lacked the skill or finesse of their opponents. Slowly, however, the balance was shifting and the cats were being pressed back. Hopelessly outnumbered it was starting to look desperate.
‘Behind you!’ screamed Grace as she caught sight of a large creature bearing down on Boot with a massive black sword of its own.
‘He’s armed too,’ she continued. Boot slipped down low and left, and drove his sword up to where he expected the creature’s midsection to be. Instead he felt nothing.
‘Above you!’ Grace screamed, pointing out a creature still a dimension above Boot, as she fought off her own attackers. Boot’s brain was working purely by instinct, there was no time to think, and it was simply sending instructions to muscles, instructions that had been honed and polished after years of practice. What Boot did next was the result of those years and years of training. It just made sense, swing the arm around, reinforce with the shoulder and thrust. This time he did feel contact and twisting he lunged forward to finish it before the creature even had time to fully materialise.
Boot too, could sense the flow of the battle turning. He knew the enemies’ number was simply too strong. The cats would soon be overwhelmed. Tiredness would lead to mistakes, and then to death.
Grace was fatigued. She hadn’t the stamina for this. She hadn’t been trained for combat. The most physical she ever got was fighting off boys with romantic notions on school camps. She was locked in combat with an armed Drawl, who was pushing her further and further away from Boot and the others. It was swinging its sword left and right, trying to smash Grace’s from her grip. As she was pressed backwards, she tripped on a clump of grass, and the creature pressed its advantage. It loomed over her, its sword now raised above its head. Grace wanted to shut her eyes, she didn’t want to see the end coming, but they wouldn’t shut, they remained glued to her assailant. She opened her mouth to scream but the creature suddenly grabbed at its chest and fell on top of her. She kicked and struggled to free herself, and as she stood she saw the arrow protruding from the Drawl’s breast. She looked back to the ridge. Two figures stood silently with large bows in their hands. Quickly moving arrows from quiver to string, they let fly with deadly accuracy. It was Nagamitsu and Shadow.
Although now too old for the hand to hand combat, the two cats could still pull a bow string, and with the years of training each had, they were lethal. The air whined with the sounds of arrows seeking out Drawl armour. The creatures began to panic and started to break up, running around like cattle in a thunderstorm. This was the breakthrough that Boot had been praying for.
‘By the Gods! I’ll cleave you all to hell!’ he screamed, adrenaline now coursing throughout his body giving him a renewed strength. The other soldiers encouraged, made war cries of their own. Even Grace made a large wailing sound that split the air and wrought more confusion to the enemy. It certainly chilled Busu’s heart to hear it. The Drawl were falling faster now. Scooter and Vintus had managed to join up with Boot and Grace. All around them were the remains of the fallen Drawl. At that moment Boot was fighting two creatures both armed and definitely experienced. He was pressing them back, but they weren’t falling for any of his little tricks designed to draw an opponent’s weight too far forward, or over-commit a swing so leaving their mid-section exposed. These two were clever; they were working together, one trying to hold Boot’s full attention while the other attempted to sneak in with his sword tip. Fortunately their choice of weapon was poor, and no match for the speed of Boot’s. Faking a lunge Boot withdrew something from his jacket. He extended his arm forwards and let fly three sharp spikes. The Drawl tried to duck but one was too slow, the spike catching it in the neck. Boot seized the opportunity and struck it dead. The other learned the hard way not to turn its back on a cat armed with a bow and arrow one hundred and fifty metres away.
The battle continued in the cats’ favour. They bunched together making it easy for the archers to pick off the Drawl without fear of hitting their own warriors. When the final creature fell, the cats collapsed to the ground exhausted. The archers wound their way down to the small group and inspected the damage. Vintus had a nasty cut in his thigh, and Scooter had a piece of Drawl armour snapped off in his arm. Everyone else was battered and bruised but not seriously injured.
Grace’s face was sheet-white, and she vomited on the grass. Shadow rubbed her back and consoled her.
‘It’s just a bit of delayed shock. You will be fine.’ Grace was shaking from the adrenaline and her pupils were dilated. She was covered in Drawl blood and looked disgusting. But, she was alive and apart from a small cut on the side of her head she was unharmed.
‘It was horrible!’ she sobbed, ‘I just don’t know how you do it? The smell, the noise, it’s so terrible.’ Grace wanted to be sick again but Shadow’s presence calmed her.
‘You did what you had to do. It’s what we all do. You did exceptionally well, you should be proud of yourself,’ Shadow told Grace.
Boot and the squad came over to check on her too.
‘All right then miss?’ asked Scooter in his jocular style. He was sporting a new field dressing courtesy of Nagamitsu and was covered in sweat and blood.
‘I’ll live I’m told,’ replied Grace, a little colour returning to her face. She tried to stand and Boot and Shadow helped her to her feet.
‘You can fight with me anytime,’ smiled Vintus, hopping over to shake her hand.
‘Well I think that’s quite enough excitement for today,’ Shadow said turning, and the group started to head back towards the city.
‘With so many Drawl killed and their gateway destroyed it should be a long time before they come back,’ Buso commented happily as he walked along with the group.
‘I think it’s time for me to go too,’ Grace whispered.
Chapter Fourteen
To remove the tumour from Grace’s head the surgeon had to perform a craniotomy. This involved the removal of a small piece of bone from her skull to allow the surgeon access. The tiny mass was then excised and taken away for analysis. The bone was replaced and the operation completed. Apart from a very small scar there would be no visible signs of the surgery. Grace was pushed out of theatre and into recovery.
‘The operation was successful and there were no complications. We removed the
mass and lab reports are negative for malignancy. There is no sign of any permanent damage and we expect a full recovery within a few weeks. Grace should stay in hospital for three days, and at home for about six weeks before returning to school.’ The doctor was a woman with a very serious sounding voice and long dark hair, tied back in a tight French plait. She looked too young to be a brain surgeon.
‘So she is out of the coma?’ asked George.
‘Coma? Um, I didn’t know she was comatose,’ the surgeon replied picking up Grace’s chart and flipping through it.
‘We removed the tumour. If that was causing the coma I can’t see why she won’t make a full recovery.’ They all looked at Grace, who was still fast asleep.
‘I would expect they will keep her sedated for a few hours until the pain wears off. I’ll have your attending physician stop by and check on…’ the Doctor’s eyes flicked up to the name on the wall, ‘Grace as soon as he can.’ And with that the surgeon disappeared, off to work on the next patient no doubt.
Joyce and George were a little disappointed. It wasn’t the news they had wanted to hear. It had never occurred to them that Grace might remain in the coma after the operation. They sat one on either side of their daughter, holding her hands and talking to her.
***
Boot and Grace walked back to the cat city in silence. Grace’s mind was still reliving the sights, sounds and the smells, the terrible smells of death. Boot had seen many battles before and knew how to deal with the trauma. He was easily able to compartmentalize the unpleasantness of it all.