THE OTHER

I was trying to back away while still on the ground, the baby firmly held in one hand when my hands felt something metallic. For a fraction of a second, I turned sideways, and I felt a thrill of hope. It was the shiny rod I had laid down while attempting to soothe the infant.

I clasped it as if all our lives depended on it, and it sure as hell did. Then thoughts of the vicious nature of these creatures began playing in my mind: their endless array of power, their sheer disregard for danger, and worse, their persistence. These things had waged war on the entire armies of the Seven Kingdoms, almost killed all three dragons, and came real close to annihilating human life. So what the hell was I doing here?

You see, between flight and fight, there has never really been a contention in my mind. Eight out of ten times, I have always chosen flight. So why would I choose now of all times to fight? Especially when a White Walker was the opponent.

I slowly laid the baby down and got up. My knee cracked painfully from the effort. Damn, the cold was quickly seeping through my bones and soon it would not matter what choice I made; I would be too frozen to do shit. If I was going to run, now would be the ideal time.

The White Walker had not taken even a step toward me for a while. It was as if the turn of events had also thrown it off. He must not have expected to find anyone here other than the baby.

The hilt of the saber was frozen in my trembling hand. Even if I wanted to drop it, I don't believe my fingers would open.

Taking a step away from the baby, I saw the Walker's eyes still trailing me, but it did not make a move. I took two more steps. Still no move, only those lifeless eyes.

They lingered on me for a while longer before eventually turning away from me almost robotically. It appeared that it had decided it had no business with me as long as I was not hindering its mission.,or maybe it would deal with me later.

Its eyes stopped on the wailing baby.

The piling snowflakes crunched as the White Walker took slow steps towards its goal.

This was it…this was my chance to run…..this was my chance to find my sanity, find somewhere, anywhere far from here and figure out what in hell was happening to me.

And I could have…I had even taken the first step except at that fucked up moment, the image of the baby's toothless smile chose to reappear in my head…so innocent, so warm and full of life…a life that in a few seconds would be snuffed out.

In my head, I could see the White Walker's skeletal fingers running across the infants face, I could see those warm eyes suddenly become cold as the snow itself…cold and blue and lifeless.

Another White Walker!

Now, I know anyone would think I am stupid. I would.

In my defense though, there wasn't much I could do. My body, which was so used to flight impulses, was now acting against my brain. Within a second, I had closed the distance, and I found myself standing between the baby and the Walker.

It froze mid-step.

This time it was only for a second. Its frozen, emotionless face scrutinized me. If the first time it had harbored some doubts, this time it did not.i was definitely hindering its mission. I was a threat.

I was still trembling. I can't say for certain whether it is the fear or the cold, maybe a mixture of both.

I had still not yet powered the saber but I tried to psyche myself up…I mean, it was supposed to be one of the most dangerous weapons…right? Especially since this was a medieval world, nothing should come close to it… it could cut through anything. Surely a White Walker, which was made of snow, should not be an exception now should it?...that was if the damn thing wasn't a toy. I felt an involuntary shudder just thinking of that possibility.

Looking at my icy adversary, I noticed it wasn't armed…thank the gods of this damn place, maybe there was still a chance for us.

The next second, however, I watched in horror as the snow around the White Walker began to gather around it. Then, when the creature outstretched its hand as if to summon it, the snow rose with immense speed and within no time a menacing crystal-like blade materialized in the Walker's hands.

"Fuck."

The word escaped my lips involuntarily, and I almost stepped on the infant as I backed off in haste. At the same time, the Walker resumed approaching in calculated steps. There was no longer any ground for escape. If I went any further than this, I would leave the baby between me and the White Walker. Then what would be the point?

I inwardly let out a silent prayer to whichever gods were listening…whoever was still awake, please let this fucking saber be real. Other than that, there was only one way to find out.

With a resigned breath, I pressed on the red button.

________

I swear the gods I had been praying to must have been listening because what happened next made my life flash in front of my eyes.

"Holy crap!"

I felt cold jitters spread throughout my body as I realized just how close I had come to taking my own life.

The moment I pressed the power button, beams of blue light shot from both ends of the hilt, completely illuminating the woods around.

Bloody hell!

Had I not been grabbing the saber horizontally just a few inches to my right, I could have been dead. I had been seconds from running myself through.

The White Walker came to an abrupt stop as it too was caught off guard.

Those lifeless eyes scrutinized what I was holding as if assessing the extent of the threat. But if I knew anything about these motherfuckers, nothing, no matter how dangerous, would make them cower back. I know they were intelligent and all, but seeing that this one was not exactly the Night King, it meant it had received an order. Returning to its master with a failed mission could mean more of the same thing as perishing on the same mission.

True enough, the moment of hesitation did not last long but it had given me the time I needed to come up with my own course of action. Which was nothing heroic nor fancy.

Looking at the humming blades, there were no doubts that this was the real saber, and what's more, I was holding a bloody double-bladed saber.

The only name that came to my mind was Ahsoka Tano…no…not the only name…there was Darth Maul of course. I mean, Tano was a lightside user while Maul was a darkside practitioner, but when it came to using double blades these two had to be the best there was.

I, however, did not have time to contemplate this info…even the prospect of impaling myself on what should be my rescue paled as the Walker quickly closed the distance between us.

The only advantage I had over my opponent was the fact that the saber's light blade gave me extra inches as opposed to the White Walker's ice blade. That and the fact that it should be able to cut through anything.

Unless the Walker's ice-like armor was made of Mandalorian steel, there was only one way to approach this threat.

Seeing the creature's sword begin to rise, I felt a jolt of adrenaline as both my hands tightened on the hilt. With a murderous scream that drowned the baby's cry, I too threw my blade foward putting as much force as I could behind the push.

The next second, I was careening forward, carried by the force of my own shove. I tried to hold back but I found myself running right through a rain of falling ice.

There was no White Walker.

Had I not seen it shatter apart, I could have sworn that all this had been a figment of my hallucinations.

But I had seen it. I breathed out a sigh.

What had transpired was likely to happen to any first-time saber user, expecially the double blades. You see, I had launched my attack using what a normal lanceman would do, that is putting enough force behind my shove to inflict maximum damage to my enemy. This, as I now realized, was quite wrong bearing in mind the nature of my weapon.

Since the saber's blade was made of pure light and not any tangible material, it somehow meant that it did not actually deal an actual impact. Instead, it simply went through any barrier in its path. In my case, it smoothly pierced through the White Walker as if it had not been there in the first place. That meant the extra power I had put behind the shove carried me forward as I had not anchored myself, seeing that I did not expect this.

Such was barely the tip of the power of the lightsaber.

As a Star Wars fan, I had many times heard this weapon hyped and praised as the most dangerous weapon, and often I thought that the praises were a little bit exaggerated. Now, however, I found myself fully appreciating its power. To think that what I had used was barely the tip of what it could do was astounding.

The weather had suddenly become normal once again. I mean it was still too cold but the frozen attribute associated with the presence of the White Walkers had died down.

Not the madness though, it appeared the things that this night had in store for me had just begun.

I forced my eyes shut as I rubbed them in disbelief. What was wrong with me? What was wrong with everything?

"Am I going nuts?"

And it appeared I was because when I opened them, the blue display screen was still hovering right in front of my fucking eyes. The words on its blue background were even weirder.

[Congratulations, User Ebron. You have successfully finished your activation quest. You can now explore the Force system.]

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dont be cold. leave a comment and a review...'winter is coming'..i need them