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Point of View
Written by Sailor Berchest
I looked up, my eyes connecting with the most perfect pair of ankles I'd ever seen. That these ankles were attached to an equally perfect pair of tanned legs would have thrilled me to no end had I not been at ankle level because someone had just punched me. Hard, too, according to the pain shooting from my jaw and the teeth lying on the ground in front of me.
"Are you ok?" the legs asked.
Technically, I suppose, the woman attached to legs posed the question, but when I looked up, all I saw was a pair of very short silver shorts with a small, transparent green skirt flowing from her hips. I looked back down, blushing a little, and wondering how tall she really was, given the very high heels she was perched on. "I'm ok." Ok, so I lied.
"I don't think you are," she said, kneeling down beside me. Every movement she made brought a whiff of an exotic, spicy perfume floating towards me. She helped me up with more strength than her supple, light frame indicated she had. I managed to bump up against her bare, firm stomach as she helped me to my feet. It was like being in heaven -- only with less feathers.
She helped me to a sitting position on a bench and turned neatly on her orange-red high heels to face the man who'd punched me. Her rich purple hair fell tantalizingly down her shoulders, brushing the small of her back. "That was not very nice," she chastised the man before her, putting her silver gloved hands on her hips. He was easily twice her size, and had I been feeling any better, I would have tried to stop her.
"So? The man owes me!"
I protested. "I do not!" A little more blood dribbled down my chin, but I wiped it off. "I paid you last week."
"Not enough!" he snarled back over the woman's shoulder.
"I paid you what we agreed on!" My head was starting to hurt worse and worse.
He shrugged his huge, meaty shoulders. "I changed the agreement."
"That's not right," the gray-eyed woman spoke up again. She had the strangest eyes. The rest of her well-proportioned body was distinctly human, but her eyes were anything but. They were smoky gray, but without the white that surrounded a human eye. And there was no difference between her pupil and her iris- however, her eyes changed darkness as she moved in and out of light I noticed.
"Forgive his debt, or I'll have to punish you!" she demanded.
I suppose, in all honesty, being threatened by a woman who looked like an escapee from a strip club wasn't the most threatening thing that guy had ever run into. Especially since he was laughing at her.
Annoyed that she wasn't having the effect she wanted, the woman struck a pose- balancing on one high-heeled foot while drawing the other up her superb legs to her knee. She defined a half circle with her gloved right hand, bringing it to her perfect lips, palm up. As she went through all of this, her purple hair swished behind her, almost in rhythm with the words she spoke. "Sandcastle Bell!"
It was bizarre, but from where I sat, I could see an orange-red and blue-green smoke surround her and lift her hair as if there was suddenly wind, but only in her vicinity. The orange-red separated itself from the blue-green and circled in on her upraised hand. She blew gently and more sand piled itself on her hands as she brought her other hand from behind her to catch the mounting sand. Then, she threw the sand.
It kept multiplying, surrounding and engulfing the man who'd attacked me. It buried him in a... sandcastle?! Now it was my turn to laugh. The red-orange sand had covered him and built up a turret over his head.
"Hey!" he protested. "What the... ?!"
The woman shook her head. "Take the payment you're due, and no more!"
"Who are you?" he asked, bewildered.
"Um..." The woman smiled, her gray eyes playful. "I'm Sailor Berchest!"
The man struggled with the sandcastle. "What are you? A cop? A henchman?"
"I'm part of..." I could tell she was making things up on the spot. "...Part of Senshi Force!" she finished with a smile. "Now, you go to sleep. And when you wake up, leave this man alone!" She produced a bell and rang it once. "Tides Erase!" Clasping the bell to her heart, she pointed a finger at the man. Snaky tendrils of blue-green- left over from the earlier attack?- twisted through the air to the beach decoration. It engulfed him and he slumped.
I smiled at her. "Thank you."
"No problem," she responded, flipping her beautiful hair over her almost-bare shoulder. "It's my job."
"'Senshi Force', eh?"
"Umm... yes!" She smiled. "Something like that."
"I'll remember that," I responded. I was about to ask her for her number, but the slightly cryptic smile that trailed over her face prevented me.
Holding out and ringing the bell again, she said, "No. You won't remember."
I began to protest, but then the blue-green mist hit me and the past few minutes melted away leaving me with an almost-memory of purple hair and perfect legs.