Lene knelt on the ground, panting hard, her arms burned from use and strain. Blood slid down from a cut along her left temple. Myrlene M'sai, her sword glowed bleakly, a pale sky blue as the icy hunger was reduced to a snow cones scorn. She struggled to keep the power shoving the white hot blade of ancient great sword from crushing down and cleaving her into two from head to groin.

Eclipse bore down on Lene with his full strength and power. Leosline, his great sword flared and thirsted for the young deities blood. The 7ft tall war angel shifted a bit more, bringing the weight of his ancient armor down on the glowing holy blade. He looked into eyes of the young woman. Dark brown eyes showing little mercy. Just a cold balance that knew nothing about time. The young woman may die and he didn't care.

Lene struggled more, gritted her canine teeth and drew blood as she bit into her lower lip. She was not going to die out here in the Outback scrub lands after finding a possible trainer for her new role as Di'idarikia. How did I come to this? She thought in despair. That blood trickled down her throat, warm and coppery and something raw and hot burned inside her, a magical force she'd never felt before. With that burning wave came the memories of the day.

I wanted to get training as a warrior deity. I had to prove myself to Canis, Godess of the Lupinossai and Lupis, God of the Lupinossai to claim and retain the title of Di'idarikia, Divine Battle Mother. New balance was needed in the Lupinossai Pantheon and Canis championed me for that cause. So I went looking in the Den Library and found records of war angels that exist in other realms recorded by several Lupinossai travelers. So I looked up each name and found reports of a wandering man that many believed to be a war angel in Rhydin.

Accounts claim he's crossed paths with the Den in dire times and has helped a time or too. I gathered supplies and took off for the scrub lands of the Out Back, the last known location he was seen in. When I arrived I spent several hours searching for him. I was ready to give up after the twentieth time I passed the same boulder but I remembered Father looking very worried about someone shi knew had returned to the realms. I wasn't for sure but I could hazard a guess it was the Ebony Knight. Everyone's been talking about him. With no sight of the war angel around and getting very tired and fed up, I did something foolish. I issued a challenge.

"Is there any angel here worthy enough to fight me and prove that I need training?" My call didn't go unanswered for long.

From a cluster of shrubs and boulders a 7 foot tall man encased in ancient armor with a maker and a design lost to the sea of time stepped out to face Myrlene. A sword was sheathed at his left hip and the hilt of a great sword rose from his back. Dark brown eyes regarded the short, furred, female creature for a long time. Lupinossai came to his mind. A race of warrior wolves walking as mankind did that he'd stumbled across in a blink of time. "You bark loud for a little woman."

I looked at the tall man and swallowed. The human was very tall and massive to my three feet of height yet, he was oddly lacking of wings. Perhaps he was just a mercenary or a deserting knight from a time long forgotten. Unslinging my pack I dropped it to the dusty ground. "I bark as loud as I want to in search of someone worthy enough to fight me. Would you be worthy enough, sir? Angelic even?"

He simply watched her, a thin line on a face that may have seen the passing of all time. That gaze seemed to take her measure and worth, shifted her about his scales of truth and lies and found her truthful in seeking someone worthy to fight, but the ultimate goal was concealed about with questions. She touched upon the scale of lies barely. Twas enough for him to find engaging her in a fight to know what truth she hid. "I am more than worthy for thee young woman, angelic or not."

Regarding him for a long moment, I knew, whether I had found a war angel or not, my challenge was accepted. I placed my furred hand upon the hilt of Myrlene M'sai, my enchanted blade and spread my paws a little for balance. The jeans, fleece hoodie and t-shirt I wore slid and twisted with me. I had an edge on the man in agility with all that armor he had on. "You're name sir?"

Brown eyes watched the Lupinossai shift her stance and ready for battle. He simply took up a T fighting stance and regarded her with a long look. "Names are of no import if you lose today young woman. I will take your life if you do not win."

I settled a nervous feel in the pit of my stomach. This man was playing for keeps already. Well I did want to tangle with top notch heavy hitters so I could pull my weight in the Pantheon. Maybe I was wishing for too much too soon. "If I win, you will train me, sir or tell me where to find a war angel to train me."

He reached behind his back and with ease withdrew the heavy looking great sword. The blade glowed with a holy light of pure white. He snapped the blade up in a high salute to the Lupinossai woman. "Agreed."

The feeling was coming back in my stomach. Deftly I unsheathed my own sword and the blade glowed with a deep blue glow, pulsing as it sensed a conflict was about to happen. Chilling cold wafted from the sword and encircled me in a cold mantle of power that lent me the title of Lady Winter Paws. Snapping my double bladed sword up, I saluted the armored man. "Agreed."

"Bring forth thy shining light down and don now our courage as we stroll into the midst of war to vanquish our enemies!" he intoned with a deep booming voice that shook the ground and swirled the sand about him, flicking pebbles and debris about. Dropping the great sword low, he charged right for the Lupinossai woman. "Ruuuunnntttaaaaaa!" He bellowed a battle cry that rumbled the ground, his armor was not impeding his movement at all.

Ah muudrah! I watched him move quickly and my observations about that heavy army went out the window along with most of my sane thinking. Debris swirled around him as he neared me, pelting me in a stinging cloud and then he bellowed that battle cry that set my ears ringing. How do you combat this? How? Closing fast, I leaped into the sky using my wings and space for an advantage to avoid being diced by the ancient chop-o-matic.

Reaching his target quickly, the man watched her spring into air as he was charging. He grinned anticipating her to uses those prominent wings of hers to get above him. That massive blade that was held low in his charge was brought up into a swinging arc, using the momentum of his charge to help propel the blade into an upward swing at the Lupinossai woman.

I hardly cleared 5 feet in the air with my jump, just got my wings out when I saw him under me and that huge blade swinging up to split me further than mother nature intended down below. Swinging my sword in a low circular parry, I connected with metal and my sword howled in rage as my enchantment fought his swords enchantment. That was great and all, but my enchantment did nothing for physical impact, force of his mighty swing or the difference in my mass to his. In short I saved myself from being split but went flying in a new direction against my will.

He grinned feeling Leosline connect with that strange sword she wielded. The great sword felt the pulse of a cold arctic spirit in the blade of the Lupinossai woman and it sank its holy felinoid teeth into the ethereal neck of the swords power. Stepping into his momentum, he directed the crashing impact he had on her smaller blade and body and sent the Lupinossai woman flying before him to the right and for a boulder.

Moving at a good clip for a hurtled object, I had a good view of a boulder swimming into my view. Twisting, I got my wings to open and tried to slow my path. I managed to not break my neck as I hit the boulder and traded in a paraplegic life for a long gash on my left temple as I tumbled to sandy ground. Myrlene M'sai sank tip first into the sand and I could hear it keen and growl. The sword was not happy one bit with whatever that man had in his blade.

Swinging the heavy blade down to middle guard, he advanced upon her. "Do tell me you have more in you than this?"

Getting my hands under me, I pushed up and stood. Things tingled or hurt, but I had been dealt rougher treatment under Takhasis' loving training as a child. Blood slicked into my left I and it stung forcing me to close it. Stepping up to Myrlene M'sai I tore the sword from the impaled sandy ground and snapped it up into high defense. "Why don't you come find out big boy?"

"How long do you think you can stay on the defense young one? Does not your blood scream for action? Burn for the need to prove yourself? Is that not why you've come to this desolate land spouting challenges?" Advancing faster he began to rain left and right slashes upon the Lupinossai woman. Not seeking to get past her guard but intentionally jarring and smashing at her blade. He was running her into the ground so he could spit her to it as soon as the guard faltered.

I watched him come and heard his words. They seemed to be the proclamation of my death and the fingering of something vile. As if I had lied about a murder and was found out in court. Angling my guard I deflected his attacks. Lupis, each one jarred me from finger tips to spine. I couldn't feel my arms after the sixth hit and I had given him 30ft of ground putting me up against the boulder. I was between a hard place and a knight with my options shrinking and my sword wailing fainter and fainter with each blow. I didn't know which would give first, my arms or the enchantments on my sword.

Sensing an inner struggle in her mind and reading her sluggish responses to his harrying attacks, he took a step back. The great sword Leosline was raised high and he placed his second hand upon the hilt, joining with the first. This would be the last strike. She will fall before him. Stepping forward, he brought the blade crashing down, centering his balance behind that swing.

The blows ceased and I thought perhaps he took pity on me. Maybe showed me mercy? I looked up and my blood ran ice cold. To hell with mercy, he was getting ready to end my life! I fought my rebellious arms, forced the numb muscles to obey my will. I didn't want to die! I had Calcifer to care for still and mother. Rising quick, I raise my sword, bared the flat of the weakening enchanted steel to the descending glow of white, sharp death and braced the blade with my other paw. Then I did the only thing I could do next. I prayed that I lived somehow.

Rising up to meet his descending blade was a tactic he grinned at for a brief second. She had robbed him of some of the force and momentum his final blow could have delivered. Leosline met her blade and snarled audibly as it grabbed the neck of her swords power and locked down tight upon it in a death bite. A shockwave blew out from the impact kicking up sand.

Myrlene M'sai howled and screamed like a wounded animal sounding odd coming from a sword. Echoing that scream was the whine and scream of metal straining close to snapping. I watched my sword bow, felt the shockwave crash down on me and forced me down to one knee, grinding me into the ground. My arms protested the abuse and threatened to abandon me to the sweet bliss of eternal rest a corpse would provide.

This, this is how I came to be here fighting for my life with a man I was not sure was a war angel. He was strong though and if he wasn't a war angel, if I live, I am afraid to meet one.

Then that blood trickled from her lips down her throat, warm and coppery and something raw and hot burned inside her like a magical force she'd never felt before. Lene tensed and began to slowly rise, inch by painful inch from under the war angel?s heavy blade.

"I... will... not... die!" I shouted to the man as our blades separated at last, freeing me from an eternity of holy weight. Something snarled in my hand and I looked to Myrlene M'sai. My sword was no longer the same. Whatever this burning power was that pulsed deep in me, filling every limb with hot sensation and strength had bled into the blade. The sword glowed brilliantly white for an instant then faded from pommel to tip leaving me with a cross between a sword and a rapier. Elegant, lethal, functional and the icy beast within surged anew growing in strength the way a house cat suddenly became a saber tooth tiger.

He found his blade slowly resisted after a few endless seconds and saw it rise from the newly assisted Lupinossai woman. So we now enter the veil and pierce the lies to look at the truth you doth cleverly hide! He sprang back unnaturally agile for a man in armor and crouched watching the young woman rise, watched her blade transform and saw the spirit of the blade renew and evolve. By thy eternal scales of Truth, Solnarum, I fight a deity!

I watched him retreat a bit and guard. It seemed the man now considered me as something to be wary of now. I wondered what I could do with this burning power and remade sword. I simply felt bursting with energy and power and so I went with that feeling. Raising the sword I pointed the tip right at the armored man. "By my name, Myrlene Alloa Wolf-Spiritor-Silverwood-Shimmerscale and my title as Lady Winter Paws, I will defeat you!" I took one step forward. Just a step, dropped the sword tip an inch and flicked the blade in a slashing arc. The sword snarled and released a shock wave of power at the man. Condensed air moved at high speed and the ground left in the wake of the arc wave frosted over with ice forming stalagmites of ice that were ripped along with the blast. Spears of ice followed the wake of razor air.

He watched the razor air and spears of ice bearing down on him. Now this was an attack worthy of his time. Twirling the great sword, the holy light forming a halo of white before the armored man and a leonine roar issued from the blade. He slashed the blade deep into the sandy soil, forcing the sword to bite deep and a barrier of shattered earth and pressure waves met the razor air arc and ice spears from the Lupinossai woman disrupting the air and shattering the ice among chunks of sod. Sand swirled around him from the impact.

I watched in amazement at what I had done. My sword had never done that before nor had I known how to combine air and ice into a flowing form of attack magic. My body did though. Somehow it did.

Wrenching the great sword free of the sandy soil the man stood from the crouch, towering 7 ft tall once more. "Now you have broken you defensive tactic. You are a clever liar, young deity. This duel was not equal when we started. I must make it equal." His dark brown eyes went solid black and glittered with beautiful flecks of gold. Swirling around him were hundreds of iron gray feathers floating in the air.

How did he know what I was? I never said? Where did those feathers come from? He has no wings? Uncertain, the power humming hot in my chest and belly, I snapped my blade to mid guard and watched the man. Watched his eyes go black and fleck with gold. Watched those floating iron gray feathers around him in the air. I didn't know what he would do next. I decided to act first. Keeping blade at mid guard I ran. Ran as hard as I could to close the gap! "Daarikai!" I shouted. My war cry erupted like the one he used on me, but different. Hard frost sprang from my muzzle, solidified and burst into a cloud of razor sharp shrapnel propelled at sonic speed.

So young, so unrefined but a power with time, could be hammered fine and honed razor keen. He observed her battle cry. Ice shards went buzzing by like mad insects. Some skittered off of his ancient armor barely leaving a scratch. Others managed fine razor thin slices into his cheek or hand. He bled slightly and laughed in his booming bass tone as she charged him. "Fools run in where angels fear to tread, it is no mark today, that you young deity die in their stead!" Raising one hand he pointed at her. The floating iron gray feathers straightened to razor sharp steel and flew at Lupinossai woman in a deadly storm.

His purpose for those feathers were all too clear and nearly spotted too late by me. I back pedaled my charge, sliding in the sandy soil and raised my left arm hoping to shield my face and closed my eyes. It was a stupid gesture I knew. My body would be sliced to ribbons by those feathers turned knives. Metal rattled on metal and the sound of shattering steel greeted my ear. I opened my eyes and found an oval shield clinging to my arm. Shattered feathers littered the ground around me. I blinked in surprise. My sword reformed, power untold burned in me and now a shield just appears on my arm? I lowered it just enough to look over the view slit on the top and watched the armored man. The power burned so hot, words wanted to escape. "What next, hit me with a pillow?"

Lowering his hand, the man slowly grinned. Stabbing Leosline into the sandy soil a diamond shield with hooks and spikes along the edge appeared on his left arm. He unsheathed a simple looking two handed sword from his belt. It glowed hauntingly blue.

I had a distinct feeling the great sword was the light weight in this fight.

"Now we come to a close on this little duel young woman. I wager we can go all night and be at an impasse. Tell the true reason for finding me out and I will call you the victor, deity. Lie and I kill you."

Lowering the shield I stared at him for a moment. "Adjusting terms already? Afraid I have the upper hand now?"

"Hardly. I see the raw, unrefined power in you. You hold promise for something. I want to know why fate has brought you to me?" He pointed the tip of that sword at her. Unknown to her, he held a Sword of Truth. Its aura radiating out and the closer it got to his target the more compelled to tell the truth they became and if it is truth covered by dire lies, those touched by the sword often killed themselves to honor the truth they spoke.

Something felt wrong to me somehow. I felt something oppressing and binding sliding from that sword he held. My body liked it not one bit and out of reflex twirled my sword in a circle severing something unseen. I felt a hole in the oppressing power.

The man watched that sword sever the power of Truth. Something he'd never seen happen in eons. Lowering the blade, he lowered his head. "I yield to you Lady WinterPaws. Obviously you come to me with a need." He sheathed the sword.

I watched him yield and gave a sigh of relief. Sheathing my own sword, I knelt in the sand. "I am a young deity, newly appointed and know nothing of the ways of a warrior deity. Will you train me, war angel that I may pasts my tests and retain this honor?"

He regarded the Lady Winter Paws for a long moment weighing the truth of her words in the scales of Solnarum. They balanced true. She did not lie. Walking forward and bowing, he unsheathed Lady Winter Paws blade raised it and tapped first her left shoulder then her right shoulder. "Myrlene Alloa Wolf-Spiritor-Silverwood-Shimmerscale, Lady of Winter Paws. By your name and title I bind thee to my tutelage and to be my squire in the ways of the War Angel. Now rise, Myrlene, Squire of Eclipse of Solnarum. May you hold to truth and give lies no quarter."

I listened to the binding of my name and title to him. My training and knowledge were in his hands to decide and I answerable to him until he released me. I stood as he commanded. "As long as I live I will strive to hold to truth and give lives no quarter."

Eclipse reversed the sword and handed it back to Lene hilt first. "Our first session will come soon. You'll know when."

I took the sword back and sheathed it.

As she did so he teleported Lene to the Glen, his words clear. Rest and tend to family in the meantime.