31 Plays in 31 Days: #28 - "A Force of Nature"

More stuff from early in the history of the Mrs. Hawking story. This takes place in New Guinea, sometime in the late 1850s or early 1860s.

I think this would be an early scene in the prequel. They say first scenes should suggest the questions for the rest of the play, as well as draw people in right away, so I tried to do that a little.

Day #28 - "A Force of Nature"

INDRA SINGH, Indian-born manservant to the territorial governor of New Guinea
a MASKED FIGURE, unidentified
~~~

(INDRA sits whittling a piece of word with a Gurkha knife. After a moment he pauses and looks back over her shoulder. Then he resumes his whittling.)

(A MASKED FIGURE, small and fast, leaps out from behind him with a cry of exertion, a knife extended. At the last possible moment, INDRA springs up and blocks the blow with his own blade. They struggle, locked together, for a moment, then he shoves the figure away.)

INDRA: Much improved. You drew quite close before I detected you. But you must resist the urge to cry out as you strike.

(The figure regroups and lunges again. INDRA evades.)

INDRA: Anything that could alert your quarry to your presence ought to be dispensed with.

(His assailant attacks again in a flurry of blows. INDRA turns them aside with his knife.)

INDRA: You will but rarely have the advantage of size or strength. You shall never be able to rely on overpowering your foe. You must instead use the gifts you’ve been given.

(The figure thrusts with the blade. INDRA dances out of the way.)

INDRA: You are swift. You are lithe. And soon you shall handle that blade like the striking of bird of prey.

(The strokes from the figure get wilder, more unbalanced.)

INDRA: But you are angry. That anger may drive you. But now it only stands in the way of your progress. You must learn to marshal it so that it does not rule you. You must be honed steel, silent smoke, an unseen presence in the darkness. One day you will become this. And on that day, you will become as a force of nature.

(He drives the hilt of his knife into the small of the figure’s back, send them sprawling.)

INDRA: But not until you resolve to do what you must.

(He picks up the wood he was whittling and exits. The figure gets up from off the ground, then dashes out in the opposite direction.)