The light fence.
About a week before the fateful night, I was cleaning up around the yard. There was an old string of Christmas lights that was only half working. The entrance to the courtyard was dark at night. I thought to put up this string in front of a mirror that was outside by the door into the inner space. When I got the lights hung and plugged them in, they all started to work. This gave a good amount of light to a previously dark area.
That Thursday night as I was standing looking out into the courtyard through the glass door that was the entrance to the house, the lights began to flicker. They became very bright and then all of the lights burned out at the same time. I looked at the string in the morning and all of the bulbs were black.
The cat was going back and forth around my feet, as cats will do when they are looking for a treat, when the bulbs burned out. He immediately arched his back and headed for the hills. Now I started to get an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. I began to get nervous. I felt like I was being stalked.
Not knowing what was going on, I decided to go into my room. There was only one mirror in the room, a long narrow mirror. At this point I seemed to be on autopilot. I went and stood in front of the mirror, raised my hands above my head as if I was holding a sword waiting to strike, bowed my head and stood there, waiting.
It didn't take long for that narrow head with all those teeth and the long snake like neck to show up, coming straight at me with great anticipation about what it was about to eat, out of the mirror. It's eyes were almost shut, just open a slit with a look of pure delight on it's face.
That is when the sword of light came down into my hands. Once there I began to strike. Four precision blows with great speed to four different places on its head. It reared its head back with a look of surprise. I made a horizontal swing, severing that long cord like neck. The head made a summer salt, I turned the blade flat and batted it out of the house. I also became aware that there was something sitting on my back. I turned the sword and skewered that beast, pried it off and cut it in two.
I just stood there for a minute or two, kind of dumbfounded, trying to make sense of what had just taken place. Looking at the sword in my hands. I decided to give the sword back to wherever it came from. That was a decision that I would later regret. You see, there were other beasts with different ways, yet to battle.