Half the Power

The Attack

I stared for a moment, amazed that something had gone right for once. Then I snapped back to reality, remembering about my time limit. "Mary, get up! We don't have much time!"

She continued her act that she was sleeping, but I had seen her. With an exasperated noise, I seized her bed sheet and pulled it off. "Get. Up." Silence. "Now."

She had obviously been up and around, because she was fully dressed, with shoes still on.

"Mary, I know you're awake, and we don't have time for silly games! Get up, or I'll literally drag you out of bed." Okay, maybe that sounded a little harsh, but time was really starting to scare me now.

Finally, with a little help from a pitcher of cold water, I convinced Mary I wouldn't leave her alone until she aknowledged me. She sat up and nervously perched on the edge of her bed, as if prepared for a quick escape... or attack.

I tried my best to explain everything, but nothing seemed surprising to her.

"I know," she said said when I finished talking about the pegasus. Eyeing my necklace, she explained. "I ran into him, too. I was out buying food for the chickens, and I saw that nobody was on the street. You know Susan, my new horse? I took her out, and headed into the town. When I got to the post office, that pegasus was there. He told me to go and find who else was awake, like you said. That necklace of yours... I have one hanging on my doorknob. I heard you coming, and I thought you were one of them. I figured they would slam open the door or something, so I hid my necklace on the back. Didn't even think about the noise... I thought they would be making too much noise searching to hear it."

How could this be real? I gave myself a mental shake. Snap out if it, I told myself. Worry later. "But... what do you mean, 'them?'"

She stared at me in bewilderment. "You mean..." she stumbled. "They haven't found you yet?" I saw her eyes widen, as if in realization. "Oh no," she mumbled, but it seemed like it was more to herself. She turned back to me. "They were waiting to get us in one place! Then they can-" Her sentence was cut short as we heard a sound behind me, and we both turned, my neck cracking from turning it so fast.

The doorknob turned fully to one side before we could regain our senses to barricade the door, and they came in.
Seven feet tall, they towered over us. They had what seemed to be the body of a lion, standing up on their back legs, but human heads.

Mary had been fiddling with her necklace, (she had quickly grabbed it off of the doorknob when it started rattling) and when the door bursted open, she yanked it with a start. As I watched, it grew into a bow, and a quiver shimmered into existence over her shoulder.

Why not? It's not like that day could get any weirder.

I did my best to copy the move, grabbing the wing if the locket, and pulled as much as I thought I could without hurting my neck.

I expected to see a bow, but I squeezed my eyes shut, overcome with dread. Once, two years ago, my sister, Kaitlyn, had taken me along to one of her archery classes. She enjoyed them, and she had a special talent with a bow. When I tried, though, I couldn't even hit the target from fifteen feet away. My face the color of a rose, I decided then to never take up archery. I never thought about it much again, but now the memory came back vividly.
I realized that I should be able to feel a quiver by now, but I still felt nothing.
Opening my eyes, I let out a gasp. In my hand, I was holding a golden sword, and it seemed to be... glowing? Like I said before: this day has been as weird as it can get. This is just the icing on the wierd cake.

I'm a peaceful person, and I avoid killing anything unless it's absolutely necessary. I've even been a vegitarian for a year or two. But... I didn't see that I had another choice.

Mary and I advanced towards the monsters that seemed to be taking their time, chuckling at their puny, tiny prey, knowing that we didn't stand a chance. We had to try, though. We acted as a team, like we'd been doing this all our lives. As you may have guessed, we do not, in fact, fight lion-people on a regular basis.

One seemed preoccupied with the books lining the wall next to Mary's door, so he was facing away from us. With a quick glance at each other, Mary and I knew what to do. She jumped on her bed to get the attention of the monster facing us, while I hugged the wall, trying to stay out of his view. Mary was the risk-taker. I always played it safe. Of corse
we would take those positions.
Mary kept the lion-human silently interested as I crawled in for the attack.

Then, the weirdest thing happened-- and that's coming from me, and you know what kind of day I've been having.