The judges didn’t call the bout for several heartbeats.
For a moment, silence seemed to blanket the entire arena and it was so hushed that it seemed every member of the audience was holding their breath.
For a moment, Terync wondered if he had erred… if he had, in fact, been hit by a thrown axe and only his adrenaline rush kept him from realizing it.
For a moment, Lewis seemed paralyzed with the offending axe at his feet where it fell. He still had the two axes in hand, and he stared in wide-eyed surprise at Terync.
For a moment, Terync thought he felt something in the back of his mind. A warm feeling, something akin to a mental hug given with a beaming smile and a sensation of pride. It wasn’t his feeling, he knew that well enough, but it seemed that he could feel someone else’s emotion, but just for a moment.
For a moment…
There are some moments in one’s life that are utterly defining. For some, time slows to a near standstill. Others report that everyday sounds are muted and distorted. Still more claim that the colors of everything around them become more vivid and an electricity seems to crawl all over the skin. A commonly reported side effect of having one’s life spun on its axis is that the heart pounds in the head louder than a drum quartet at a rowdy pub and possibly linked is that the taste of copper and clouds seems to linger on the tip of the tongue.
Most of all though, the person whose life is literally at a fate-decreed crossroads seems to experience it all from outside of their own body, watching the events around their physical self as if it were happening to someone else.
Many believe that these events are incredibly rare and only happen to a select few. This often breeds a resentment to those that are fate-blessed by those who believe they were never given consideration. The resentment festers into anger and hatred, sometimes to highly destructive ends.
Truth be told, these moments happen all the time and they happen to everyone at some point in their lives, sometimes multiple times and often in rapid succession if initially ignored.
Fate is kind of a pain in the rear like that. That’s not to say that there’s a greater destiny for everyone out there… that a world-saving hero lies in the hearts of every person, waiting to be awakened. That’s Destiny’s job and she is pickier than a world-class chef judging competitive tavern cooking. Destiny only taps a handful in any generation and she only calls once. Ignore her and you’ll be slinging sheep dung for the rest of your life wondering what could have been if only you traded the cow for the magic beans.
Fate, on the other hand, tries to give you every opportunity to choose the ideal path. Sometimes it’s as simple as accidentally crossing paths with your one true love, usually in an event that results in a physical altercation, like opening the door and accidentally knocking the other to the ground.
Those that are attuned to fate when she calls like this will instantly feel one or more of those sensations typically ascribed with this kind of life-changing moment. Those that aren’t attuned… well, they’re the ones that cry out in anguish and pain at never being fate-blessed, usually in defiance of fate trying to make that moment happen over and over again until even the seemingly omniscient universal power of fate is exhausted and moves on.
For Terync, his rebounded attack was one such moment. He knew it, and he grabbed firmly of the opportunity fate had given him. Now all that was left was the aftermath and the anticipation of what awaited excited him.