A figure comes sailing in from the sky from the direction of the other battle, there’s only one person it can be. I smile happily as Teuila plows into the ground in a crashdown strike sending up a shower of mud and stone reminiscent of our time in the swamps back in the early days. Only, you know, like, thousands of times more voluminous. I spit several pounds of mud out of my face and wipe my eyes, trying not to laugh.
Te yells, “Cheers love! Cavalry’s— oh. Good job dink.”
My brain BSODs for several moments. After blinking enough times to reset my brain, unsure what set it off, I just smile at Teuila. She gazes at the scene of destruction. The massively charred triangle of ground, me standing atop Kozzurth’s severed head, the Colossi nearby arguing about what Helen’s title should be, and she might be able to see Dawn looking a bit timid behind me. I hope that Dawn was in my leeward area so they didn’t get too mud-covered.
Dawn whispers, “Holy shid you weren’t kidding.”
I crack up, laughing and I slip and fall off of Kozzurth’s head due to how mud-slick it is now. Yeah, I suppose it was probably a pretty impressive show of strength to see someone sailing in from out of sight range and smashing dozens of tons of soil away in a single strike. I guess I’m just used to how awesome Teuila is. Oh man, I broke character, I’m laughing and rolling in the mud. Haha, ah screw it. I’ll just kill the Colossi guards Helen and Rej if they think I’m weak for enjoying my love. Jeebuz Reggie, violent much? Brutal much? Meh, I suppose so.
Teuila, while snickering, helps me out of the mud, lifting me up. We hug tightly when she suddenly spots Dawn behind me and yells, “Dawny! I didn’t think we’d see you til we wrapped this whole thing up. Well, I guess that’s still true, since we already did, and I didn’t see you til just now. But yeah, anyway, Dink, what’s that about?” Teuila asks while indicating the two arguing guards over her shoulder with a thumb.
I’m about to answer when Teuila adds, “I was about to just kill my two after taking down Karn, but for some reason, heh, well. After I kicked their leader’s corpse a few dozen meters like a ragdoll, they ran away when I jumped towards them. Who’da thunk? Right? Want me to kill or scare off these two?”
I roll my eyes and try not to laugh, “Jeeze Teuila, hah, no, they’re going to be the new leaders or something. I sort of appointed them or something stupid. It was dumb, I was playing a role and jokingly gave one a title to shut them up. Kinda worked like a charm. We need someone to lead these Colossi and get the word out between them to stop hassling Autumn Brook anyway, remember? Karn’s dead, so he’s not going to do it. Wait, were you really able to kick his body away more than a few inches? He was massive. Eh, it’s you, I don’t really doubt it. But yeah, other than him, Kozzurth would never have caved. So, yeah, someone who witnessed the fight is probably a solid choice to like, proxy or advocate or whatever. I mean, I kinda don’t really give a rat’s arse what they do with their little society as long as they stop hurting and extorting their neighbors, y’know?”
Teuila nods, “Right, right right, right righty right rightyo. Uh huh. Makes sense I guess. And maybe, just maybe when I kicked his corpse it didn’t go ragdolling, and only fwumped a limb to one side as a bone caved in or something. Physics, y’know. Still, I mean, could still always just break all their legs at the knees on every single one of ‘em or something so they can’t walk to The Brook if they’re going to be feisty dicks forever.”
I snort a laugh and Teuila grins derpily, hinting that she’s being playful and not actually desiring to kneecap every giant along the plains. Dawn however doesn’t realize that as they quail behind me. Dawn probably realizes Teuila could absolutely carry out a threat like that, but doesn’t realize how silly Teuila can be about violence. Te’s not some brutal monster, she’s a playful protector with a jokingly smug braggadocious side.
I flick my eyebrows at Teuila and flick my eyes towards the direction her battle was in. She understands I’d like a rundown of what happened. Her smile goes so wide I want to just clutch my heart and drop dead from joy at seeing it. She’s so friggin’ precious.
Teuila brags as she excitedly, quickly rattles off the tale, “It was an epic battle, you shoulda seen it. So at first, his skin was too hard to pierce with any of my arrows, and he was way quicker than I was expecting. I couldn’t get a good angle at his neck or anywhere soft, so just straight melee with my spear was out. Figured out a trick with the quiver so that the magic of the bow itself makes different kind of arrows. Not like super awesome magical wind arrows from my own mana energy stuff, but still. I started firing flaming arrows up as a distraction, but I realized that the fire made them stick in his rocky skin when they fell. Once I saw that, I started luring him into the path of more falling arrows. Basically I created a ladder, a bunch of ladders, for myself up his whole stupid body. Not that I couldn’t have just floated up to his face, but I don’t like the lack of mobility from just floating around. Wouldn’t want to get caught in slow float-tion, slow floaty motion, you get it, by one of his swings, he was hella STRONG Ayy Eff. Anyway, you can’t imagine how surprised he was when I leapt so high off his dumb face that I left his reach. I needed his height to keep the right momentum to get high enough without being a sitting duck. Saw some of that lightning in the clouds up close and personal-like. It followed me down along my spear. Kinda melted the spear and burned my hands a bit when I plunged it into his cranium. Anyway, so yeah, that was that finally. Natch. How’d yours go dink?”
Pshew, or phew, that could have been dangerous Te. No need to spoil your mood about it though, so I’ll keep it to myself. It’s also hella impressive. Heck, the telling of it was impressive because she didn’t pause for a single beat or breath. I had to rapidly manually blink my eyes to keep my ears hearing her as she rattled off the tale. I don’t know how that works, but that was the requirement to be able to keep up with her.
Since it’s my turn, I try not to laugh as I relay the tale, “I made a strategy for an epic battle, but had to throw it out the window. She opened her mouth wide, I jumped in and cut her head off from the inside. While she was breathing fire. Natch.”
I immitate the random vernacular Teuila’s suddenly using instead of naturally. Hm, hella? Natch? AF? These seem like modern-day Earth slang. Ugh, not this again. Screw fakeworld and its memories, or, urgh, not memories, fantasies. Yeah, their stupid fantasies.
Teuila stutters, “But, but, but, but, but dragon! Big one! Massive one! Giant colossal huge one! Epic fight! Extreme adventure! Just, just one move?”
I bite my lips to contain my laughter, nodding. I’m not entirely certain she’s not running a bit on me, but if she’s not, I’m not sure which she’s more feeling; annoyed that there isn’t a big story for my fight, disappointed at not fighting the dragon herself, or bewildered that I managed it so easily and quickly when we both know how weakened I’ve become. I honestly think that a lot of Kozzurth’s power was just talk, thinking back on it. She didn’t need to actually demonstrate her power when her size inspired awe and fear. Who knows, maybe the multi elemental thing was a lie too. Though that organ in her throat did seem to shift colorful light.
I ramblingly state, “So, cryptozoologically speaking, Kozzurth’s heart and head are probably both really valuable, but because I don’t want to start an inter-settlement war, I figure we leave them with the heart, the Colossi can keep it, and it’ll provide blood for a little longer. I’m not sure if they’ll start shrinking without the blood eventually. Probably will. Kozzurth’s corpse will dessicate over time, so, sometime in the future they’ll probably maybe possibly start returning to human size. Hopefully. But even if not, Helen and Rej over there seem like they might have it handled in terms of keeping the peace.”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Jokingly I add, “Pretty sure Helen knows I’d come back and friggin’ murder every last one of them if they hurt the people of The Brook any further.” Dawn quails and quakes behind me for a moment, then becomes more resolute over a short while, realizing I’m entirely on the side of Autumn Brook.
I continue, “But, yeah, so. Like, the head. Think you can get it home with us Te? I have no friggin’ clue how to get the ancestors home with us. I don’t think they’ll follow us, and we can’t carry an entire building with them in it. And I am not entertaining the idea of chaining them up and dragging them behind. Best I can imagine us doing is setting them free, and having one or more Colossi come with us dragging a ditch behind them, and creating a bridge across the chasm. Ancestors couldn’t really wander anywhere outside of the ditch, so they’d eventually end up on the home side of the gorge at least.”
Teuila’s nodding along, “Sure sure, yeah I’ll drag the head. Hm, yeah, that could work. Maybe shore up the edges of the gorge so they don’t accidentally stumble in. They’re kinda kookie. Like, they don’t really truly know what’s going on around them entirely, but somehow, they sorta do? It’s weird. Like that one picked that awesome spot at that tree. So, they kind of know what’s around them? They just don’t react to much around them that changes or moves or whatever.”
Dawn hazards to ask, “You two aren’t, you’re not serious, right? You’re not dragging that thing back to The Brook, are you?”
I raise an eyebrow back towards Dawn as I glance their way, Te and I both ask, “Why not?”
Dawn clasps their stomach, which is odd, given they have no vital functions enabling them to be sick. Dawn states, “That’s, no, just no. Why would you even do that?”
I huff, sighing, “Hff, look, do you want them to possibly reattach it, and maybe figure out how to reanimate it if they’ve seen any Aasimovians do that? Are any of us sure that a dragon doesn’t just reanimate on its own? Or what an undead dragon might do that might be different than an Aasimovian ancestor?”
Dawn raises a finger, curls it, raises it, curls it, and their mouth tries to form words for a moment before they admit, “Ah, er. Good point.”
I chide, “I’ve got a giant serpent’s head in my inventory, we wouldn’t even be dragging it back with us if our magic worked right. Oh, Te, are you willing to try? If you focus on the idea of claiming it to your inventory for eight or ten minutes or so, and the things that would happen in the next few seconds, eight minutes in the future, for the entire time, it should pop right in.”
Teuila raises an eyebrow and shrugs, “I guess I can give it a go my wonderdink.” She shoots me an incredulous glance and grumbles, “One move. Jeeze.”
I try not to laugh. I’m still not sure if she’s upset, bored by my lack of a story, jealous she didn’t get to face it, or running a bit on me. It’s so hard to tell when we don’t have our psychic bond. Teuila lays her hand on the head, ignoring everything else going on around us for a while. Teuila’s muscles glow with the effort, along the lines that were lacerated when I tossed her a tether on our last day on Can’Z’aas.
Starting to worry for her safety I call out, “Te, Te maybe it’s not worth it. I’m sorry I asked you to try. Te are you okay? You can stop. Please? I love you. Please be okay.”
Teuila groans in pain momentarily, but completes the inventory interfacing. There’s an audible whoosh as air rushes to fill the void where the head once was as it disappears into Teuila’s inventory. She gleefully exclaims, “Whew, hurt a little closer to the end there, but I got it! It works! It’s that simple? I mean, it sucks, and it takes way too long to use in combat, but really, we can really just wait around a while and have it be done? We can buy so much more useful stuff! Camping gear, food, everything!”
She leaps at me and I worry I’ll be bowled over into Dawn, but she reduces her gravity to near weightlessness, so I chuckle and spin her around as she wraps her legs around my waist and peppers my muddy face with kisses.
Dawn coughs politely and averts their gaze, seemingly embarrassed at witnessing our shared affection. I politely cough and Teuila looks around for a moment before also coughing and dismounting me. That. That’s a weird sentence. Also a lot of coughing.
Dawn speaks from the side of their mouth, “I uh, guess you two really are, huh? Like, boss dating employee or something?”
I snerk, choking on my own saliva as I try not to laugh, and Teuila’s face contorts as she asks, “Wha? Huh?” Teuila catches on, laughing as she answers, “Oh, oh jeeze. We’re not like. I mean, okay, we’re totally like --, yeah. But not like that. I mean, we’re together. Totally. We’re not some kind of --, like, no one is. I mean there’s no money changing hands for --. Okay I mean Dink was paying for things. But that’s, ugh, only because I didn’t realize it was so easy. I’ll just snag money from my own inventory from now on.”
I continue to snort with laugher, accidentally sucking down acid rain drizzle for my troubles, coughing and laughing at the same time as Teuila explains and backpedals repeatedly. Teuila grins wildly, widely, derpily down at me and playfully slaps me on the back, chiding me for choking on the drizzle again.
Finally catching my breath, I explain, “Teuila’s my everything Dawn, when I called her boss, I just meant, on our planet, she always let me take the lead, I don’t even know why. I made so many stupid choices. Te don’t bother denying it. I love you, but I’m a dummy and we both know it. So here, on this planet, where I’m so much weaker than her, I want her to lead. It’s that simple. We’re just like, a couple of goons trying to make it from one place to another, living our lives trying to stay happy. There’s so much I want to fill you in on. I really appreciate you worrying about us, and coming to warn us. I’d love to talk at length. If, um. If you don’t mind, maybe hanging out with us? Maybe, stuff. Y’know. Te invited you, and, um, I think it’d be cool too. Especially to figure out, um, that other thing.”
Dawn somehow blushes, despite not having any blood-flow. Teuila looks back and forth between the two of us, and jokingly slugs me in the shoulder as she asks, “Really, already? We’ve only been on this planet a few days, and you’ve already got another g, uhh b, uhh, kissy partner?”
Now it’s my turn to blush, and I sense Dawn frowning as they stalk away quickly. I shake my head, “No, Te, I. I didn’t mean like that. I’d totally admit it if I did, you know that, right? It’s not like that. There’s something going on. Dawn’s soul, it, it’s hurt. Real real bad. Can you see it? I saw it with the magic in the staff.”
Teuila shakes her head, “Things don’t look the same as back home. I didn’t know. I’m sorry dink. I’m really sorry. Did I hurt them? I didn’t mean to hurt them by teasing you. I’m sorry. Their aura is a little weird, but, well, I don’t know what people’s auras are supposed to look like here. Like, Tiago’s aura is different than everyone else’s in Autumn Brook, well, other than Dawn, sort of. Even those two are different, but, but there’s something. I don’t know, they might not even know what they share in common.”
I nod along, listening to Teuila. When she’s finished, I call out, “Dawn? Dawn are you still nearby? We’re both sorry. Teuila was teasing me. I’m sorry. I, um. It’s okay if you don’t want to answer. I, I really hope we see you again. Even if. I’m just sorry. Get home safe, please? Okay?”
Dawn vanished far more easily than I’m used to anyone sneaking away. Like some kind of assassin. Huh, maybe I should ask if they knew Aces, or if they’re from Vale Valley or something. Maybe that’s why their clothing is so much more modern? Ugh, modern. What context does that even have? Modern times are just current times. It’s not like I’m somehow on Earth in its past. Earth doesn’t exist! Grrr. I wish these stupid broken memories would just go away so that I can, I can, just, ugh. I just want to have normal thoughts, not be comparing things to some fake world all the time.
Teuila pokes me in the bicep and gazes down towards the mud shyly. She mumbles more apologies. I even hear her sniffle, despite the constant boom of thunder and crackle of lightning overhead. I wrap an arm around her shoulders and sigh.
I console her, “It’s not your fault. Shh. It’s not your fault. I think they’re okay. They’re immortal, they’ve had plenty of time to learn how to respond to things. They might just need a while before they realize you were joking. I love you. I love you My-Wings. Truly, deeply. It’ll be okay. I don’t think we’ve lost a potential friend. Not yet.”
Teuila rests her face between my neck and shoulder for a long while. I sense a presence observing us at some point. I’m not sure if Dawn has been there the entire time, or only just returned. I honestly hope it’s the former, so that they might have heard our apologies.