TI - Heavy Blows to the Fat Man

Hockey

It was the last day of the Snowspell competitions and up next was the sport which Florence was certain he could dominate in; Hockey.   He stretched and limbered himself up for the big game, dressed head to toe in hockey gear matching that of Willowoods team colours.  There was even a little insignia on the front, an angry willow tree with two branches for arms, punching a wooden fist into another wooden palm.  It was not Florence’s first choice of “team mascot”, but no one had really chosen. Arae and Heaven were the ones who designed it, and it was certainly a little better than the “badass clown” which Arae had chosen for her team.

Besides, a team emblem was not the deciding factor for the team.  It was who could play the best, and so far his team was looking to be quite the nasty force.  Set up for goalie was Florence himself, who was picked for the job thanks to his large size.  Yes there were others in Willowoods who had been of equal size or taller, but Florence had the width as well to block off the net better than the three thinner males.  This as such left Pops, Cerhart and Aldric to take the ice, thanks to both their size and their ability to handle tough situations.  With these four combined, they were a force that dominated the competition.

Not that it was an easy task, size and strength alone would not guarantee them winning the game.  In fact Cirque des Jouets and Snowspell had seriously fought back when Willowoods played them at Hockey, mainly because Cirque’s members were nimble and quick thanks to their circus training, while Snowspell simply had the home advantage. But it certainly helped that, being as Hockey could be somewhat violent from time to time, they could easily overtake smaller players and steal the puck away with little physical trouble.

Now they were up against their last area, Cora Blue, and Florence was starting to get a little concerned for his safety.  I the earlier games, he was rather fine being goalie.  Sure he had to take a few puck shots to the gut at times, but nothing that was all terribly painful.  Only when he played against Snowspell had the puck left a bruise, and that was because they had Ciel, Heaven, and Chastell playing, with Snowflake choosing to be goalie as a sort of parallel to Florence.

But for the past week now, Florence had made a great effort to ignore Rawk.  Sure, the other toy would actively hunt Florence down, but as long as he did not talk to Rawk, the muscled toy would shortly after stomp off, fusing about how “rude” or “nasty” Florence could be.

Now Florence was playing against Rawk, and where Snowflake chose to be goalie for the sake of being on par with Florence, Rawk wanted to put his skills on the ice.  In fact, just when Florence had walked by the ice as Rawk was training, he threateningly swung his Hockey stick violently against the puck, launching it past Florence and into a tree.  The attack had no where been near Florence, but he could see as the puck slammed into the tree, knocking down all the snow which clung to its branches, that Rawk was going to very well whip the puck at him every round.

He considered asking his team that they switch places, let Pops, Cerhart or Aldric take that chance while he happily avoided getting smacked about with the small black disc.  But the he remembered that in Hockey one was allowed to check and slam into others when playing the game, and Rawk would likely just make his entire game about slamming into Florence as many time as possible before the end.

He was between a rock and a hard place, but in the end he chose being hit by pucks over being slammed into.  One could likely leave a bruise that would heal, the other could break some bones or worse if he fell at the wrong angle.

“One more game to go, and let’s try to win this.” Pops cheered, raising his fist into the air while their team suited up for their last game.  Aldric just saluted and Cerhart shrugged, both nonchalantly slipping their helmets on.  Florence was far more engrossed in trying to make sure the right areas were protected, such as his face, hands, and the “family jewels” most importantly of all.

“You think they would let me wear a Kevlar vest?” Florence mused aloud, his team turning to him wide eyed and confused.

“Doubt it.” Cerhart muttered, shaking his head before silently returing to gearing up.

“Why’d you ask?” Pops questioned, stepping over to Florence.

“Ah, just… you know Rawk hate’s my guts and he’s playing.”

“I don’t’ think Rawk will openly try to hurt you.” Aldric spoke up, attempting to reassure Florence. “I mean, the goal of the game is to get the hockey puck into the net, so I’m sure he’ll be working to miss you.”

Florence stared at Aldric for a minute, eyes open wide and gazing blankly at the toy solider.  Pops did much the same, eventually turning to look towards Florence then back to Aldric.

“You haven’t met Rawk yet, have you?” Pops asked.

“He’s the kind of guy that’ll challenge you to coin flips, and he’s very vindictive.” Florence added on.

“Rawk practically hates Florence and wants nothing more than to shame him,”

“Because I kind of shamed him back at one point,”

“Which he deserves since he took that attempt at CPR you did,”

“And interpreted that as me being a jerk.”

Aldric, with a small smile on his face, looked at the two toys while Pops and Florence rather eloquently completed each other’s sentence.   Once they finally went quiet he just stared, blinking a few times.

“Surely he wouldn’t let his team lose just for some silly vendetta?”

- - -

Come the Hockey game, and Florence started to realize that yes, Rawk would be willing to risk his team losing a point by sending shots aimed for Florence.  He first came to this realization when Rawk, having a chance at the net, set the puck hurdling into Florence’s gut. It just about winded him for a moment, and the game even had to be paused for a second just to make sure that the large toy was not on the verge of emptying out his earlier breakfast.   When it was confirmed that he would be fine and could continue the game, the players returned to their positions with Arae reminding Rawk not to do that again.

And he did not do it again, at least not as hard as to possibly make Florence vomit.  He just dialled back the blows now, making them strong enough to hurt but harmless enough that each time Florence was smacked, it looked more as if he had “blocked” the puck than was the intended target.  His team would cheer each time the puck missed the net, but Florence would groan for a moment and return to position.

Sometimes he was lucky and one of Rawk’s team mates would take a shot, but Rawk always made sure to follow it up with another blow, never letting off long enough to let Florence heal or “rest”.  By the time the First Period was complete, Florence was sluggish and barely able to leap left and right.  Each attempt to move just caused his gut or arms to ache, slowing down his reaction time.  Thankfully they were offered a small break, not long enough as Florence had hoped but welcomed nevertheless.

“Florence, are you okay?” Pops asked, taking notice of Florence’s pained grunt whe he sat down onto the bench.  “Good job keeping the puck out of our net, but it looks like you’re taking a beating.”

“I’ll be fine.  I’ll ache but, ah, it’s worth it…” he sighed, glancing to the other team.  “Besides, it might be for the best.  Keith is doing a damn good job keeping the puck out of the net and we only have three points on them.”

Taking a moment to relax, he looked over to the opposing team’s bench, spotting Rawk happily sneer at Florence.  It nearly forced Florence to leap up and scream of how Rawk was playing unfairly, that he was one of the worst competitors Florence had seen.  But the reminder that he was trying to ignore Rawk kicked in once more and he looked away, instead taking some water to sip before the teams were called onto the ice yet again.

Florence returned to his post at the net, attempting to work out the kinks in his aching body before the puck was dropped.  Sure enough, Aldric who stood center took the puck from Troy and zipped by, in time passing it over to Pops.  They were drawing closer and closer to the other team’s net with Rawk quickly intercepted and slid along, zooming down to their team and at times handing it to Prima or Troy before being returned.  When he was up to the net, Florence prepared himself for the next blow.

Oh man, it looks like he’s going to just smash that puck into me! Florence feared, sucking in a breath of air and getting ready to take the blow.

With a loud click of the wooden stick hitting the plastic puck, the black disc shot towards Florence.  He braced himself for the blow, expecting this one to be a real knockout blow.  Suddenly, a loud “fwosh!” could be heard behind him, and he turned to see the puck in the net.  Rawk pumped his fists with joy, skating back to the other side while Prima commented about him finally getting a goal and Troy congratulated him.

“It’s okay Florence; we still have two points to their one!” Pops reassured, skating into position again for the puck to be dropped.

Florence nodded his head, getting into position as he took in a few relaxing breaths.  He just missed… though lucky me.  That could have been bad.

With a clack the puck was dropped, this time being quickly taken by Troy who glided to their side.  After alternating between Prima and himself, trying to find an opening on Florence, Rawk came sliding in and was quickly passed the puck.  Without delay, he lifted his hockey stick and slammed it against the puck, sending it towards the net.  For a moment Florence, again, readied himself for this painful blow.  But just milliseconds before the puck was near him, he realized it was angled far too left from his position and he flopped towards it, too slowed by the pain in his body to stop it from entering the net.

Rawk cheered with excitement, getting a quick hug from Troy who slid away and a simple nod from Prima as the second period was called.  Florence, in the mean time, laid there, wide eyed.

“Florence, don’t let them get this next point!” Pops called back, skating up to his friend.  “I mean, I know you don’t want to be hit anymore, but you can’t-”

“That’s not it!” Florence spoke, scrambling to his feet and pressing his hands down upon Pops’ shoulders.  “He was messing with me in the first period!  Just smacking me about to slow me down and confuse me.”

“What?” Pops asked, the other team members skating over to hear his little ramble.

“He hit me a bunch in the first round to bruise me, slow me down, and scare me.  Now that I’m not at my full game, he’s taking advantage and is aiming to get goals.”

Pops, pursing his lips, turned to look at Aldric than towards Cerhart.  It seemed a little devious of Rawk, but then again it was also quite clever.  Exhaust Florence, and then go in for the kill.

“So?  What should we do?” Cerhart asked, seeing this more as an issue for Florence to deal with, being their goalie.

”Get him off me, that’s what!” Florence snapped, receiving a wide eyed stare from Aldric and a disapproving scowl from Pops.  “Sorry, it’s just.  You be a punching bag and tell me that you’re happy about it.”

“Just calm down.” Aldric calmly spoke.  “We’ll make sure he doesn’t get the puck, or at least try to.”

Arae, dressed in a rather lovely black and white stripped dressed, called for the teams to get into position.

“Do your best to hold out, Florence.” Pops spoke, sliding off towards the center of the ice rink.  “And we’ll do our best to keep him off!”

Florence, with just a single nod, returned to the net and stood there, spotting the other team’s set up had changed.  Now Rawk was center, with Troy to his right and Prima to his left.  Oh boy… Florence sighed, watching Rawk just slam the puck to Troy who shot ahead and moved to the goal.  Thankfully the first attempt at getting a goal on them was by Prima, who though not a bad player was arguably a child compared to Rawk’s blasts.  As such he quickly blocked it and the teams returned to position.

But come around the next play, and Rawk had easily stolen the puck from Aldric, easily slamming into him and then carrying the puck away towards the net.  Cerhart and Pops did everything they could to stop Rawk, but he just shot past them, to the net, and launched the puck forwards.  By pure luck Florence had caught it, but only because Rawk’s aim had been a little off.  By the third play though, Rawk had easily forced Florence to flinch, jerking him in the wrong direction just enough to give his team an extra point.  Now they were tied, and if Florence missed this last one, his team might not be pleased to see their winning streak disappear.

“Last play!” Arae called, standing between Pops and Rawk before she dropped the puck and slid off to the sides.

This time both sides played fiercely.  One moment, Willowoods would have the puck and be zooming to the other team’s net.  Then out of nowhere Prima, or Troy, or Rawk would appear and steal the puck, carrying it to the other side only to lose it when someone from Willowoods took it back.  All the while, Keith and Florence stood at the ready, sliding along with the puck to make sure if it was hit to their net, that they could dive in and stop it.

It was only after ten minutes of this that Rawk grew tired of passing the puck around and moved right for the net.  Troy and Prima called for him to pass, seeing that he was running right for Aldric.  But instead he ignored it, checking Aldric out of the way and then shortly after that Cerhart.  Pops was the only one left attempting to stop the puck, sliding towards him to steal it or knock it off course for someone else to take.  But just as he was about to intercept Rawk, the large toy raised the stick as high as possible, tightened his muscles, and crashed his hockey stick against the puck.

It was a gambit to say the least; as he was a bit too far for the puck to retain its speed let along accurately hit the net.  But he had just put all of his energy into the blow, as the sound it made echoed like thunder when the stick hit the puck.  Pops slid to the side, nearly in the way of the blow as Florence watched the black object zoom towards him.

Time slowed as it dawned on him that this puck was, accidentally, aimed for his head.  Sure, his helmet and faceguard protected him, but this was a puck that from his point of view was going at the speed of a bullet.  Surely if he stayed in the line of the blow, it could break his nose or knock out a few teeth?  Too afraid to stay and let it hit him, he ducked down and attempted to catch the blow.

It glided just past his hands, Florence’s arm too slow to catch the puck which soon swished into the net.  Everyone on Cora Blue cheered, happily skating to their side with Arae calling the game there.  Florence, in the mean time, sat there pouting.  Pops and the other skated over, reassuring that what had happened earlier likely set his game off balance, and that it was only natural he be took tired or in pain to fight back. But it still stung that their nearly perfect winning streak was lost.

As Florence slowly rose to his feet, half-heartedly patting his gut which throbbed quite a bit, he could spot Rawk across the way, looking to him and then holding up his hands.  On his right he held up two fingers, and on his left three.  All the while he mouthed out, slowly and carefully so that Florence could read his lips,

“Two me, three you.”

Florence, by this point fed up with Rawk, raised a hand and shook his fist angrily.  By doing this he had more or less ruined his silent treatment earlier applied to Rawk, but it was obvious that being quiet was not going to work, and it was time to take more drastic measures…