The Soul Cages

The glass ball's pinkish stream smashed against his shield and reflected back into the blackness of Solis' night sky.

"In to the Circle!" he ordered. The commanding voice did not seem to come from the massive man, but rather from the heavens. Indeed the man could have been a young god; his eyes covered by opaque glasses; his head devoid of hair and his skin the color of warm cocoa. As he defended her, his full lips were pulled back into a sneer, revealing clenched white teeth.

Scrambling to her feet, she slipped on the slick surface, scraping the delicate skin of her knees in her hurry to reach the circle.

Orono directed the glass's stream towards her, not to be outdone, as she hurried and slipped towards the Allerton Circle.

The man in the black leather pants threw his shield in front of her and the light's stream was again deflected. He was saving her again in less than a few moments. He raced over to her and retrieved his shield. She got up and he joined her. Running along side her, the mystery man was the only thing between her and the soul cages.

Cursing, Orono adjusted his bulk and like a slow moving elephant lumbered towards the two. Heaving and huffing, he muttered curses as he hurried towards Sarah and her dark knight. His fangs ready to tear through the stranger's flesh.

"Whoever you are, you will surely despise the day you crossed me," he spat and swung a tight right fist towards the man.

Orono's fist landed squarely into the shield, knocking the man awkwardly and hard onto his back. He crawled on top of the man's shield, crushing the man beneath it with his extremely monstrous bulk, his fangs closing in on the man's exposed neck.

"For the heavens, into the Circle!" the dark man declared once more as he lifted the shield with ease as

Orono went flying into a patch of grimy soil some ten feet away.

With her heart thundering in her ears, Sarah raced to the flickering glow of Allerton Circle and with one giant leap, was embraced by the tickling, dense feeling of the Allerton Circle's entranceway. She turned to look behind her and saw the massive mysterious man running towards the Circle.

Breathing heavily, he lowered his shield as he, too, entered the Allerton Circle.

Behind him, Orono cursed all the more as he, too, tried to enter the Circle. As soon as his foot slipped into the circle, smoke hissed and curled into the air. His face twisted in pain and mounting anger. He quickly retreated from the circle and growled in fury. The foul smell of burnt flesh floated into the Circle's ring.

"Bye-bye now." The man smirked as the image of Orono faded. The sheen of sweat glistened from his brawny shoulders and powerful chest. Hairless, his chest rose and fell in a hypnotic rhythm as he tried to regain his breath.

Sarah tore her eyes away from his torso and moved them up to the face of her rescuer.

"You had better hold on," he ordered as the whirling of the Circle began.

The mournful landscape blurred as the twirling increased, growing faster and making Sarah dizzy. Grasping for something, anything in which to hold on, she tried to stay awake and to keep her bearings. But the accelerated speed of the Circle grew to be too much.

It spun her into darkness.

***

The crisp, wintry air penetrated Sarah's lungs, icing the bronchial tubes that limited her breathing.