Paper Minds - Part III

                            

The warrior Antonio

    Kevin called Victoria into the kitchen where he had prepared a meal. He was always the one to cook on a Tuesday but the days when Victoria cooked were best because she was a much better cook. He had prepared 2 large plates, upon which laid two poorly displayed meals. In the centre of the plate was a large block of scrambled egg, seasoned with lots of pepper, around which rested 4 half-pieces of toast, buttered right up to the edges. Despite its simplicity, the meal was actually very delicious-looking. Kevin looked down at the two meals, half-smiled in contentment and sat down to await the arrival of Victoria, who then walked through the large wooden sliding doors and joined him. She saw his meal and giggled; he smiled with her and then gestured toward her food. "Bon appétit" he beamed.
    Victoria, still smiling picked up her fork and began to eat the scrambled egg. There was a quiet squelch and a small amount of liquid flooded out onto her plate before her fork hit the plate underneath with a 'chink' and she scooped the egg up and brought it to her mouth. She lightly pursed her lips around the fork and slid the egg off with her lips alone. She made no sound and was ever such a polite eater. Unlike Kevin she preferred that her toast and her egg did not touch. Their two dogs, Gino and Niccolo rushed to the doorway when they heard her fork hit the plate, but they did not enter.  They sat in the doorway, admittedly, as close to entering as possible, but they followed their teachings and stayed sitting, politely but expectantly, out of the kitchen never-the-less. Victoria looked at them and smiled as she chewed. The dogs saw this as meaning they were getting food and wagged their tails more. Kevin sliced through his egg with the side of his fork and scooped it onto his toast. He then looked at it and then took a huge bite from it. The crunch which came from the toast attracted the attention of his dogs and they both quickly turned their heads in his direction, even more expectantly. Gino, getting impatient stood up, made a weird noise, turned on the spot and then sat down again. At this point Victoria shooed them with a gesture and got up to slide the doors shut. Kevin swallowed and then turned to face Victoria who was in the midst of shutting the doors. "I'm going to write a book," Kevin stated, looking hopefully at his fiancé for approval in his change of ideas.
    She turned to face him and her face brightened up, "That's wonderful Kevin!" She grinned, "I'm glad you finally decided to make good use of that book I got you."
     Kevin smiled happily and then bit into his toast again.
      After the meal it was Victoria's turn to wash the dishes because Kevin was the one to prepare the meal. Kevin, leaving her to it, walked over to her and gave her a kiss, savouring the precious golden moment, before leaving into the living room, his heart still going wild from the kiss. He sat down in his armchair by the bookshelf once more and watched clouds pass by through the window as he contemplated the book.
    Eventually Victoria walked in, just as he came to the conclusion that the best idea would be to write a short story to test out the book some more, he just needed a genre. Victoria sat down in the armchair beside his and curled her feet up onto the seat with her, so that she was comfortable. After digging down the side of the cushion and producing the T.V remote, she leant over to hold Kevin's hand before pressing the large read power button which sat at the top of the remote. The T.V came on, it had been a while since they had watched T.V, especially together, and the T.V made a deep hollow 'thunk' noise before starting up with an odd buzz. Kevin was un-distracted by any of this, his mind still busy as he watched the clouds rolling calmly by. He then heard a manly roar from the T.V and looked to see what was making it. There was an advert on for a gladiator-type film which was to be released in the cinemas soon. This reminded him of his book, despite his book being about medieval war. He thought about it for a while and then decided he'd try out the book's power by using this medieval genre. He looked at the book on the shelf and wondered whether it would be safe for him to use the book with Victoria so close. He came to the eventual conclusion that she would be frightened of the book's odd powers and may try to destroy it. He also felt a light tinge of greed, as though he didn't want her, or anybody else for that matter, to know of its power and he wanted it all to himself. He shrugged the idea off and pulled the book from the shelf. Victoria put on a show about gang-crime in America and Kevin had little interest in it. He used this as an excuse to leave and go upstairs to start on his book. Walking into the bedroom, tightly clutching his leather-bound book, he realised he hadn't kissed Victoria before he left, he turned around to go back when he felt a wave of importance which seemed to draw him back into the bedroom, the thought of kissing Victoria wiped from his mind. He walked over to his desk and moved his laptop underneath it. He then grabbed his black leather office chair and wheeled it over to the desk before sitting on it and switching on the desk-lamp. He opened the book and instantaneously began to think up the story, while staring at the blank page. He wasn't very thorough with how he described things because he knew the book would do it for him. "Antonio was a brave soldier," He thought, "Fighting for his kingdom with the weapons and armour their time was limited to."
    Kevin thought up a couple more sentences and, as though the book had heard enough, he began to become groggy again, his vision began to swirl and pulse around until his eyes slowly drew shut, the portcullis to reality firmly sealed. With a burst of anticipation, his last thought was, "Here we go..."
    Once again, he was in a blank open space, where nothing could be seen or heard, waiting for the tales and adventures to just explode forth from the ground.
    This time, the first thing to materialise was the ground. Just like before, it swept, like a sheet, across the ground beneath Kevin's feet. The damp dust and dirt which was the ground swamped around Kevin's feet and he felt himself being lifted up to stand on top of it. Kevin then heard a splash behind him and, taking his attention away from the fresh newly-placed ground beneath him, he turned around to view the source of the noise. A puddle had appeared just a couple of feet above the ground and fallen into conveniently placed indentations. The next part of this world to form before Kevin's eyes was the sky. The deep, dull, grey and clouded sky swept from the horizon at Kevin's left all the way to the horizon at Kevin's right. Subtly, without Kevin noticing until it became heavy, rain began to fall onto the ground. Through the loud crashing sound of the rain hitting the ground Kevin swore he could hear a low rumble. The rumble eventually burst into a loud crash as, on the horizon directly in front of him, an entire kingdom of thatched cottages and wooden shacks surrounded by a huge stone wall of defence rose quickly in a cloud of dust.  In the centre of the kingdom was a large hill of surprisingly well-kept grass and shrubbery. A-top the hill was an obligatory, yet cliché, castle. Kevin tilted his head inquisitively at the kingdom; oddly he felt a sense of hatred and anger at the place. Just as the ground got damp enough for the rain to start making muffled splashing noises upon it he heard another rumble, this one was close and loud enough for him to be able to hear it over the rain. In fact, he now noticed, he could feel it, beneath his feet. With a sudden pulse of realisation and terror Kevin leapt forward and ran at least 20 or 30 feet before turning around to look back. The kingdom which burst forth from the ground at his feet was very similar to the one on the horizon, but the hill bearing a castle in this kingdom was based at the rear of the kingdom, on a much lower hill. Kevin then realised that this kingdom lacked a defensive wall around it, unlike the other. As if responding to this, a wall stretched up from the ground just inches away from his toes. The powerful rumble and sheer force of it rising was enough to knock Kevin over and he lay on the very wet ground choking on the huge damp cloud of dust which swept out from the newly sprouted kingdom. Wiping himself, he got up and studied his surroundings with curiosity. He looked up at the huge wooden gate stood before him, reaching out to the sky above.
   At that moment, as he stood with his head tilted far back, he heard a loud noise rushing forth from far in the distance. The noise swirled through his mind; it was the sound of a gargling drain but eventually, along with the sudden appearance of a large group of soldiers stood around him, the sound became a roar. A battle-cry. The soldiers were all lightly armoured. They had strong armour-plating but only in the most important places, such as the chest and the limbs. They wielded two swords, their dominant hand wielded a long sword and in their weaker hand they held a short sword evidently there for parrying attacks. They also carried shields on their backs, seemingly for use in case their short sword was lost. However some soldiers seemed to feel safer wielding the shield right away.
     The battle-cry was then responded to by another group of soldiers stood at the other side of what was now clearly a battle-field. The echoing roar of the soldiers nearest to him and the continuing roar of the soldiers in the distance flushed around his mind. He felt a sudden rush of determination and motivation. He turned around and faced the other army in an offensive stance. Realising what he was doing, he stood back up straight, still confused, and then watched intently, waiting for the story to unfold before him.
    With a sudden crash of swamped footsteps the two armies charged at each other. Some soldiers remained silent, but others roared with enthusiasm.
    One soldier looked back at Kevin, his face screwed up with a powerful determination, "Antonio! What are you doing!?", his face settled into a more concerned look, "Whatever ails you, my friend, can be dealt with at a later date! Right now, we have a powerful foe to defeat!"
     Kevin looked behind himself to look at his character, Antonio, and study his features. When he looked back, he saw nothing but the large wooden gate which had knocked him over only moments ago. Who then, was that soldier talking to? Kevin watched as more soldiers ran past him and, in the sword of one of the passing soldiers, he caught a glimpse of his reflection. His skin was now white, a very pale white, white like the bed sheets on which he would lay with Victoria. He had long wavy copper hair and a short copper beard. In disbelief he lifted his hands to feel his face. His arms seemed heavier to lift and when he tried to feel his face, he felt nothing but warm leather. He looked down at his hands and saw that they wore leather gloves. He moved his hands out of his line of sight and leant down a little to view the rest of his body. He was clad in the same armour as the soldiers in the army which had now gotten pretty far ahead of him. He drew the swords which he found at his sides and looked at his reflection. "Antonio must be... ME!" he yelled.
     He looked out in front of him, looking at the distance he had to cover to catch up with the rest of the soldiers, he burst forth in an instant sprint. Feeling the extraordinary strength of muscles far superior to his own in his legs, helping him to catch up to the other soldiers with ease. He reached his allies just as a clash of steel, amidst roars of anger and pain, burst forth and rattled through his skull from the front of his allied group. Still feeling a rush of strength from his powerful muscles, Kevin forced his way to the front and thrust himself directly into the midst of battle.
    Kevin fought tremendously well, as though he had trained his whole life for battle. He struck weak points in the heavy armour of the enemy with extreme skill. Slicing them at the knees, wrists, elbows, throats and even ankles. Kevin had now fought his way into the centre of the enemy's group and very few of his allies had made it there with him. The enemies held huge rectangular shields just inches shorter than themselves and were armoured incredibly heavy. But they were slow compared to Kevin's allies, who were lightly armoured and could use astounding amounts of agility and were able to dodge, and counter, with spectacular ease. Kevin continued to slash and hack his way through the exposed areas of flesh and bone of his enemies. Just then he heard a cry, "ANTONIO!" The voice yelled. Kevin, responding to this name as he would his own, spun around to see the young soldier who had spoke to him earlier. He had been pinned down onto the ground by an enemy soldier, who was using his large shield to do so. Kevin, feeling an immense sense of friendship towards the pinned man, sliced through two soldiers in his way to reach the man. He had almost reached him when an enemy charged at him, with the lower part of his shield pushed out with the intention of tripping him. Kevin leapt into the air, and landed on the upper half of the shield, which the enemy was hiding under. Applying force to the shield, Kevin caused it to collapse on top of the enemy beneath, crushing him. Kevin bounced up from the shield upon impact and leapt forth with his sword held high above his head as he travelled through the air. His leap through the air brought him above  the enemy pinning his ally and, using all of the strength he could find in his fresh new muscles he brought his blade down upon the back of the enemy's neck, slicing his head straight off. With a shudder, the body went limp and felt to the floor as a stream of hot blood thudded against the back of the shield, which now began to fall away from Kevin's pinned ally. The freshly dismembered head landed upon the chest of his Kevin's ally, who leapt up and, holding the head in the air, roared.
     "Are you okay, Frederico?" Kevin asked the man, without thinking. How had he known his name?
     "I am fine brother, thanks to your superior skills!" Frederico yelled with delight as he threw the head at an oncoming enemy. The head wore a strong, heavy helmet of steel and shattered the knee of its target upon impact. The affected enemy collapsed to the floor with a cry of pain, which was then silenced as another ally came and sliced his head off in a single swipe.
     "BROTHER! LOOK OUT!" Frederico yelled as a huge blade whistled past Kevin's ear. Kevin stooped low and spun round with his sword outstretched to meet the knees of his attacker. To Kevin's surprise his sword struck with a 'clang' and he looked up to see that his attacker was even more heavily armoured than the other enemies. He heard a deep laugh from his attacker which echoed metallically around his helmet. Kevin dived to his side to dodge another heavy slash from his attacker's huge blade. As his blade thudded into the ground Kevin leapt up and kicked hard at the head of the huge man stood before him. In a flurry of deep black wavy hair, his helmet came right off and thudded into the ground and stuck there, glaring through a blank visor at Kevin who placed his hand on the man's head and used it as leverage to swing himself down and force his foot into the back of the man's knee. With a crunch the man's knee crippled and he fell forward to his knees. The man yelled in pain and swung his huge sword at Kevin again, but Kevin, only just landing, was quick enough to bring his own blade down on the man's wrist; slicing his sword-bearing hand away from his arm. Kevin grinned wickedly as he looked down upon his victim.
    "Defeat has caught up to you in the form of the cold icy fingers of death himself." Kevin breathed as he knelt down before the man and, holding his back to support him, slid his smaller blade through a gap in the man's chest plate, forcing it into his heart. Kevin pulled his blade out with unmerciful speed and wiped the blood off in the hair of the huge, now dead, man whom fell to his feet.
     "The enemy captain has fallen!" yelled the familiar voice of Francisco from behind Kevin, who spun around to face the cheers of his allies as the enemy fled in surrender.