"Since when can Maeve do THAT!?" Doubar said, but apparently everyone was too busy watching the spectacle to pay any attention to him.
Rumina did not even realize what was going on until she felt Maeve kick her sharply. "You little witch!" Rumina screamed. "You're supposed to be dead!"
"Sorry, but I've got other plans!" Maeve attacked Rumina and soon they were in an all-out cat (or should I say pegasus?) fight, kicking and pawing and snapping at each other. Gradually the fight brought them closer to land, with the Nomad quickly following, of course, and the fight became even more heated. Maeve gained the upper hand just long enough to deal Rumina a severe kick in the head that sent the black witch crashing to the earth like a stone.
Rumina hit the ground with a thud and then changed back into her human form. Maeve glided toward the ground while Rumina tried to catch her breath. About twenty feet from the ground, Maeve changed back into her human form all except for her wings, which she kept long enough to make a perfectly graceful landing. Rumina stood to face Maeve as her wings dissolved.
"My, my, Rumina, you really need to work on your landings a little more," Maeve commented as she drew her sword.
Rumina materialized her own sword in her hand. "Just shut up and fight!"
As they began to advance on each other, Rumina raised her sword so that it was pointed to Maeve and sent a bolt of magic flying toward her. Maeve raised her own weapon in time to absorb the blast and sent it flying back at Rumina, followed with her own magic ligtning. The witch fell back a few steps but quickly recovered. She launched herself at Maeve and the two fought with their swords, metal clanging against metal and occasionally coming into contact with skin, drawing just enough blood to make Rumina smile with sadistic glee.
Rumina managed to knock Maeve's sword out of her reach and said, "Now we end this!"
Maeve backed off a few steps. "Aye, we do!"
Rumina threw down her own sword and the two once again attacked each other with their magic. After a series of attacks and couter-attacks, Maeve once again had the upper hand while Rumina tried to recover from the drain she was experiencing. Maeve concentrated and conjured up a fire ball that rivaled even the sun in intesity and hurled it at Rumina. The witch didn't even know what hit her. She was dead before she hit the ground, or should I say, she was dead before her ashes blew away into the wind.
Maeve stood for a moment, not believing that her quest could truly be over that easily. It wasn't until a tall, red-haired man with laughing eyes like her own came up and pulled her into his arms that she fully understood what she had just done.
"Dermott?" Maeve said. "Is it really you?"
"Aye, sister, it is." The two hugged for a moment but pulled away as Sinbad approached to take her in his own arms.
As Sinbad and Maeve pulled away from each other Sinbad produced a small box that he had been hiding and handed it to Maeve. She looked questioningly at him and he said, "Maeve, so many times today I've thought that I'd lost you. Every time I asked myself 'What would I do without you? How could I live?' Maeve, the gift I gave you earlier was not your real Christmas present. This is." He gestured for her to open the box. For the second time that day she gasped at the gift Sinbad had picked out for her. It was a ring. An engagement ring. Sinbad got down on one knee and took Maeve's hand. "Maeve, my sorcerer's apprentice, light of my life, will you give me the most wonderful Christmas present ever and give me your hand in marriage?"
And that's when Maeve fainted and fell into a confused Sinbad's arms.
Back to the main page
Back to Zephyr's fics page