It didn't feel right.
Seconds before, a wave of hate energy had swept in from one side of their patrol, ... but ... it wasn't as strong as usual, which meant - distraction!
Kelly threw her sensing out in a sphere and felt the small vibration - a displacement of normal energy, not hateful, the wavelet ahead of the wave ahead of what was coming, and coming from above.
She threw herself to her (astral) knees in the centre of the patrol, and threw her arms up, crossed, to aid her visualisation of a shield.
Moments later, she felt like a cave roof had crashed in on her - but she held. The other two Rangers in her Triangle - the smallest and most basic Ranger unit, a group of mutual support that was even more basic than a single Ranger - slid in beside her, and added their strength to the shield.
She risked a momentary smile, and then worked at adding a unit to detect anyone trying to change from astral to etheric, and an etheric shield for anyone trying a dimensional or level downshift.
Their patrol leader had not been idle in the seconds that this was happening: as a first step, she had woven green energy from her Earth Star chakra with silver from her base and gold from her solar plexus chakra into a braid that she had set circulating around under all the Triangles, with a command to each add their own braid of energies to draw from and reinforce the swirls. Once that had stabilised, she added another braid of blue throat and then an additional gold line of energy for communication, and a braid of purple and indigo from the third eye crown and Soul Star chakras for inspiration.
When the three rings, each a braid of vibrant energies, had stabilised, she sent out a telepathic call for aid ... and then she turned to Kelly, who was straining with the visualisation.
Kelly had arrived tired from a day of niggling petty annoyances from work colleagues, some full on aggro from those using her library, and two incompetently reported stories of disability discrimination that had left her seething.
Georgina, the patrol leader, had got Kelly to outline emails to write about the stories - to the papers concerned, and to her MP, and made sure her Triangle-mates talked with her about her day, but Kelly was losing some balance.
So Georgina thought back to the times Kelly had been exemplary at calm under stress, and compassionate when others couldn't be, and sent those memories to her ... half a minute later, and Kelly smiled and nodded her thanks, and her strength returned.
Now ... the situation ... Georgina scanned, and realised this was a weird pattern showing they were being attacked by inexperienced by exceptionally angry people: the were shifting up in frequency from etheric to their level of astral to attack from what was being perceived as "below" the patrol, and down in frequency from a slightly higher astral level to attack from "above" - there was nothing around the periphery.
She could feel Casz leading the astral reinforcements and getting closer, so she risked sending her assessment telepathically, and received a mental nod.
Casz split her troops in two, with each using a parallel attack of light from this and the other dimensions against their attackers, but with a perception of coming from the side.
And they were good - they were dissolving the unbalanced and unbalancing energies of hate and fear, and strengthening those doubts and reflections which were - or would ultimately be - constructive ... but it wasn't enough - so Casz, in her turn, sent out a call for help, and ...
... a couple of minutes later Brenda, Agent of Bast, and her cats were attacking the etheric group from the other side, using lots of fast, distracting movement, yowls and other weird sounds that only a cat could dream of, and flashes of colour, and Valkyrie Kara had led a small squad of Valkyries against those attacking from the slightly higher astral, using strength and power to tumble their attackers away and apart from each other, breaking their unity.
Half a minute, and their attackers had had enough, and fled ... except for three - no, four who stayed behind, confused, ashamed, and crying with guilt. Casz had brought their healers with her, and they were soon soothing those four, building the light in their auras until they could be counselled and guided, which would be later tonight.
For now, though, the patrol had been successful enough - a bit clumsy, and taken unawares, but they'd address all that tomorrow. For now, it was time to return to their bodies and their own healing.
You can find other Rangers of the Inner Planes stories at:
- [A Rangers story] Ambushed - A Rangers of the Inner Plane Story
- [A Rangers story] A Ranger's Operation;
- [A Rangers story] A Regiment of the Rangers of the Inner Plane Prepares
- [A Rangers story] A Ranger Plan
- [CW] [A Rangers story] A Ranger Patrol
Copyright © Kayleen White, 2023 (where this date is different to the year of publication, it is because I did the post some time ago and then used the scheduling feature to delay publication). I take these photographs and undertake these writings – and the sharing of them – for the sake of my self expression. I am under no particular illusions as to their literary or artistic merit, and ask only that any readers do not have any undue expectations. If you consider me wrong, then publish me – with full credit and due financial recompense, of course :)
