It was the heart of the night; the moon, almost full, looked like a massive, round emerald in the night sky. It cast a soft, green glow over the countryside, causing the shadows to be darker than normal. A calm, warm breeze was in the air, making the foreign grasses sway gently from side to side. If you listened carefully, you could hear the quiet sounds of the strange night creatures that inhabit this land. This land is peaceful, soothing, and yet can be so very deadly. For the night hides many things, not all of them good.
Two dark figures are moving along a dirt path in this serene landscape. The figures are humans dressed in odd clothing. One of them glances at the other.
“How long do we have?” a male voice asked.
“Why do I always have to tell you how long we have? Why don’t you just get a watch, Luke?” A female replied in an irritated tone of voice.
“But you always have to wear your watch, Kara, and most of the time I am with you, so why should I wear a watch when you always have one?” Luke questioned.
Kara rolled her eyes, “Forget I ever asked. And don’t remind me about my watch.”
They continued to walk down the trail in silence. Luke was thinking about the battles they had fought earlier that day and all the days before that. He knew their enemies were getting better, smarter, and faster, but that just made it all the more fun, more challenging for him. Kara on the other hand was thinking about the battles that were yet to come. She was already planning her tactics for the next world, the next conflict. She too knew the enemies were getting stronger, but unlike Luke, that did not make her happy, it made her worry. Made her worry whether or not they would survive the next battle, if one of them would be a second too slow to block a razor sharp claw from ripping one of their throats out. But she also knew that worry helps no one, so she forced herself to put her worry aside and prepared herself for the next battle.
“So,” Luke asked again after a few minutes of them walking in silence, “How long do we have?”
Figuring that Luke was going to keep asking her until she told him, she looked at the small, odd watch on her right wrist, the time showed 11:53. “We have seven minutes.”
Luke shrugged, “Good enough, we’re not that far away anyhow.”
Kara snorted, “Aren’t you the optimist tonight.”
Still walking, Luke grinned at her, “Hell babe, someone has to be.”
Kara glared at him, “Don’t call me “Babe”. And must I remind you what happened last time we got a little bit carefree? The time we almost didn’t get out? They’re getting smarter, Luke, and we need to be more careful. And that means no more of your, “Go at them head on/ blow lots of stuff up in the process.” plan of attack. From now on we are going to have to be quieter and stealthier about the way we do things”
“You just have to take all the fun out of it don’t ya?” Luke said gloomily.
Kara arched an eyebrow, “Would you rather have fun, end up dead and be no good to anyone or, would you rather do things my way and hopefully stay alive?”
“Ok ok, I will try not to blow things up next time,” Luke grumbled, “And I will try not to just rush head on into things. Happy now?”
Kara just smiled and continued walking.
“Women.” Luke mutter under his breath.
Even though Luke and Kara did not act like it sometimes, they were the best of friends, and had been for many, many years. Both of them had saved each other’s lives so many times they lost count. They had also saved the lives of billions of people, though most of those people had never know their lives had even been in danger.
Suddenly, Kara sensed something in the dark shadows, following them.
She slowed her walk and whispered, “Luke?”
“Ya, I hear them to, how much longer do we have?” Luke said in a low voice.
This time Kara simply looked at her watch and told him, “We have four more minutes until in opens. But don’t forget, we still are not there yet.”
“Don’t worry so much, babe, we’ll make it. But it sounds like we are going to get a battle to send us off. How thoughtful of them,” Luke said as he slowly moved his hand to the silver handle of the Masamune hanging at his side.
“Luke, get serious!” Kara hissed as she slowly moved to grab her weapon of choice on this world, a pair of small, steal maces.
“Oh believe me, Kara, I am as serious as I can get right now. But I can still have some fun while I am being serious, can’t I?”
Somehow Luke could always make her smile, even when things where not looking too good. “Just don’t end up wounded, or worse. I would hate to have to drag your carcass out of this place on my own.” She told him.
“Gee, babe, glad to know you care for me that much,” He mutter sarcastically.
Kara glared at him again, “Stop calling me “Babe”.”
Luke grinned, “It’s all in good fun…babe.”
SNAP!
“Sh!t!” Kara yelled, bringing up her weapons to prepare for the attack, “Here they come!”
Suddenly a creature leapt out of the darkness. It looked almost like a dog, only it was very skinny and had legs that were adorned with razor sharp needles. It landed right in front of the two warriors, growling fiercely.
“I hate it when they send Narus!” Luke spat, “Do you want this one?”
Kara scowled at him, wishing that just once Luke could be serious about combat. “Sure, I’ll take this one. But do you want to get the one that is behind you and about to rip you to shreds?” Kara spun around quick as light, hitting the Narus that was inches away from ripping into Luke. Her mace connected with its head, making a sickening crunch and sending blood flying into the air.
At the same moment that Kara had spun to attack the thing behind him, Luke had shot forward to attack the Narus that was in front of them. In the time that it took Luke to cross the few feet separating him from the creature, he had his long sword unsheathed and was ready for a battle.
The Narus hissed and leapt backwards, out of reach of his sword. Before Luke could make another move a mace flew past him and buried itself into the Narus’s skull. Kara quickly was at the side of the dead creature, removing her weapon from its skull. She turned to look at Luke, “Come on. We have to go.”
