The rear lights bathed the garage doors behind them in red. The big rig and her equally large trailer hissed to an air brake stop outside. The driver threw open his door, angled himself, and dropped on all four hooves on the street.

“You are a pro when it comes to reversing here Mule, I would have been here all night trying to get it right,” said Jed, walking around the front of the truck.

The man leaned against his fast death dealing muscle car slurping down his drink. The nearby truck hauling container of looted citrus was their payday. Mule walked in front of the big bumper watched over by a bolted metal cast statue of a bear playing with a circus ball.

“I love that manufacturer because of the nostalgic mascot on the hood even if their glory days are over,” said Jed, pointing his shake at it.

He had picked it up from a nearby hut. It wasn’t hard to catch brain freeze with whatever sweet stuff it was. The motor depot on the outskirts of the village was a group of metal buildings. A sign out front said “Crayzies Garage Best Service”.

“So Jed we drop the citrus load I got out here,and get a payday eh,” said Mule.

“I would hope so yeah but we still got a load of jungle juice to bootleg across dangerous terrain in time to present as a wedding offering for the big money,” said Jed.

“A key reason they need outsiders like us running it in empire territory,” added Mule.

“Exactly and I wonder if my wrecked car getting repaired like new is the downpayment,” said Jed.

His straw began to loudly sputter out, having slurped to the bottom of the cup.

“Enough I can not stand that sound,” said Mule.

Jed threw his mug on the ground. Mule gave him a look of disapproval, and many shakes of the head. Jed sheepishly retrieved his trash and lit the paper cup on fire in his hand, before dropping it back on the tile to burn up on the ground.

“Good boy,” said Mule.

Jed looked at the ground then the tree line where lights moved casting shadows. Beat… Beat… Beat. Beat. A steady thump rumbled throughout the thicket.

“That must be our quest giver,” said Jed, placing the three citrus fruits he had saved for the road underneath the seat.

“A species with some special magic to them, Crazins,” said Mule standing by Jed's side.

Tribal leader Travis approached glowing out of the dark, with his teeth white as ghosts reflecting the idling truck. Neither Jed, nor Mule had noticed the leader’s tattoos in the previous encounter. Now they flashed, and pulsed along a hairy chest glowing bright purple that blasted through his attached skull trophies shining no doubt freshly polished.

“You look fabulous,” said Mule, doing a four legged version of the purple salute.

Jed followed the best he could remember from bootcamp.

“Oh a purple performance just for me, I will match you,” laughed Travis, setting his cloak on an assistant so that another two sets of arms could untangle themselves from his torso.He was already in the process of doing a quick stretch with the rest of his muscled body.

“And you special one do you come in peace?” asked Travis pointing a finger at Mule before launching into his routine.

“Hah, Chacha, Gacha, Mah” said Travis doing a series of kicks, smacks, and chops, before six backflips, and the same number front.

He bowed , before performing a perfect rotation of all 12 color salutes. He then remained still. Jed and Mule clapped their arms together.

“He haw he haw. What a show, what a show” said Mule laughing as he rolled over breaking apart a bundle of hay.

The donkey rolled back and forth scratching his back in front of the truck in amusement.

“Ahh good to know you loved my show too bad we lack more time to party, however I will sleep well after we hide our illegal loot,” said the purple clapping four hands together in a pattern before crossing them.

Nearby the Crayzin warriors ripped open the garage doors, while others climbed aboard starting the engine, and beginning to reverse the load of citrus. With the truck parked inside workers ran out from hiding to the trailer. They rolled down the stopper on the trailer propping it off the ground. The trailer full of citrus fruits was detached, as a spiked grill of cutting crystals meshed to metal was welded on.

The truck's hood was propped open. A Crayzin ran out with a sparking plug connected by long electrified wire. The warrior ran to the vehicle inserting the plug directly into the crystal engine. It sparked, and briefly shows his skeleton. The warrior walked it off seemingly facing no ill health except crazy hair. Another garage warrior in oil stained overalls greased the axles, and then dumped in a fresh jug of oil under the hood.

The truck drove out, and the Crayzin mechanics inside quickly shifted gears, reversing into a different garage department. This other section had a fresh sparkling liquid trailer sitting in storage. A large barrel full of juice on wheels. A container with a house on the top, ladder on the rear, and marked for transportation of liquid gas.

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“That must be the jungle juice I’m trucking,” said Mule.

“Yes Sir it is,” laughed Travis. .

Mule nodded in relative contentment. The three unlikely allies watched as the trailer of jungle juice was connected and hooked together with the truck. It drove out of the parking lot to them.

“Get in there Mule and give that horn a few honks" yelled Travis pulling a fist up and down.

“Come on my man I hate to be a beacon of greed, but you gotta pay us a little something more for a smuggle all across the kingdom,” said Mule waving a hoof at the leader.

“Oh of course, I thought Crayzin generosity was too well known thus I planned to shower you with surprise rewards as we progressed on the mission,” said Travis.

“Like?” asked Jed, frowning.

“Well let's start with the big prize for the first leg. If you can get this load to Upot in 12 days or less with the jungle juice I will make you very rich,” said Travis. .

“Wow, that sounds like a deal,” said Jed, extending himself to do the blue salute.

“Now not so fast this deal is phantom meat, a nothing burger, an impossible task that has never been trucked that quickly” said Mule.

“Well that’s true, however there’s a wedding that needs that jungle juice, and if you get it there then you will be two very wealthy gentlemen regardless as long as it's within the month. We are talking Elven crystal stashes” said Travis, his eyes gleaming with glee.

“Your eyes betray you for it's obvious to me you will also be getting a reward percentage, and not giving a downpaymen but nevertheless we will give it our best having no other forms of employment available to us at the moment except prison labor,” argued Jed.

“C'mon Jed it’s time to get trucking, not being business majors,” said Mule.

A seventh arm detached itself from his body to pull a map from out of another crevice.

“Take my map just in case. Good luck to you two,” said Travis shaking two hands, opening the truck door, and leaving his map on the seat at the same time.

A deep rapid fire 808 attack triggered Jed.

“We are under attack from the knights,” said Jed, unsheathing his sword he took cover.

Mule clenched his teeth as the racket revealed itself from the top of the nearby temple towering over them. A thick head sized ball was being kicked around at the apex by a bunch of jersey wearing Crayzin athletes. A loud club beat pulsing with the ceremonial lights.

“You guys tribe really got it going on” said Mule as he struggled to climb into his big rig.

“Well that's my cue to drink,” said Travis, prancing off.

“Nice guys, but now it's time to drive,” said Jed.

“Agreed Jed we are about to have a real cool time but it's no easy job trucking the juice from spilling at high speed,” said Mule, slamming his truck's door with his teeth after.

“Just one more thing,” said Travis, rushing back to the scene with a package.

“What is it?” asked Jed as he took it.

“Your first reward is a packing weapons package,” he said.

Jed unwrapped the gift paper. Mule climbed back out of the truck in order to not miss anything. Underneath the wrap a paper box with a diagram of the party's newest weapon. The cover came off revealing a tiny tipped semi-automatic crossbow shooter.

“What ammo do you load it with?” said Jed inspecting his 12 shooter.

“It can take anything you throw in its hopper, however seeing you on the road I figured explosive bolts would be the most useful concoction” said Travis.

He removed several boxes of ammo from his deep trench coat pockets.

“The color tips will clue you in to what the arrow will do if you stumble across more in your travels. Matter of fact I may have stuck a few other varieties into the opened ammo box to make up for what I used” added Travis.

“My man, well thank you for saving us, sorry if I was a bit grouchy, as I’m not built for this tundra, now we got a delivery to make in record racing time” said Jed, jumping in his car through the window.

“No problem, here Mule let me help you,” said Travis cupped two of his hands for a platform that Mule stepped on climbing in.

“Here I almost forgot this, now don’t forget us wise one,” he said, placing blocks of wood that other hands tied to the pedals for the animal to reach.

The donkey took off the brake before shifting her into first and slowly letting off the clutch.

“Take care out here,” said Mule, pulling away.

“Good luck,” said the now eight arm waving crayzin.

A large party of warriors had arrived to escort their chief to his party. The big rig’s horn let off a few quick blasts driving away onto a dark jungle dirt road.

“Wooooooo!” screamed all the warriors in celebration.

Jed roared around them in his fast car. The fresh all terrain tires drifted around a corner while he imagined listening to his favorite country music. The front wheels briefly went off road, as a response to dodging a sinkhole gaping open. The momentum was enough to clear the danger, returning all four tires to the ground on the other side of the stream trickle.

“Can you hear me Mule, there's a wash out ahead you're going to want to go slow around it. Over” said Jed into his royal band radio.

“Roger, I think I see your tail lights up there. Over.” said Mule, downshifting.

The big rig and its full load of jungle juice slowly cleared itself around the corner, and the sinkhole. Outside the monkeys did their best to drum up enough noise to distract him as Mule fully concentrated on making the tight turn then rumbled through the uneven washed out portion of dirt road. Eventually the rig pulled itself straight, before upping speed again.

“Adventure is back in progress buddy, over,” said Mule smiling.

His receiver was propped in the cup-holder, and always recording.

“Yup you keep me in the loop back there, and I’ll extend the same courtesy when it comes to keeping any waiting knights from seizing the golden ticket you're driving over,” said Jed.

The truck had caught up to the car. The back of Jed's head found itself engulfed in crystal beamed lights. He pressed harder on the accelerator giving them some distance. .

“I think it will be smooth sailing from here on out, or trucking that is ha ha ha” said Mule.

“We just gotta get to the Crazin wedding in the allotted time frame breaking records, no biggy over,” said Jed.

“We got it buddy, even if it takes nearly the full month limit, slow and steady wins the race, over” said Mule.