Thermia stood among a group of guards and workers that were watching the elk orgy. After they stampeded across the field, they all turned to go back to work.

“Wait a second, guys!” she called out. “What are you going back to, exactly?”

The workers looked at her, confused.

“We need money for our families, miss,” one of the men said. “I thought that was obvious.”

“There will be hell to pay if we don’t get back to work,” a woman said.

“Well, I guess you guys didn’t hear the bad news…” Thermia said, and the crowd drew in closer. “This place is closing today. There is no more work here.”

Everyone threw their tools to the ground, talking among themselves.

“Oh man, what a bummer! I have the worst luck!” a man said.

“Bradley?” Thermia asked, seeing the man she recognized from Pribbs.

He smiled.

“Oh snap! What up dick-girl?” He shook her hand. “The new outfit is tight as hell, dude.”

“Uh, thanks. What are you doing here? And how did you get here before us?” she asked.

He laughed.

“Well, I had some gambling debts I couldn’t pay back, so I just hitched a ride with some people here and…got to work.” He waved at one of the farmers. “It’s not as fancy as my last job, but I enjoy it. What brings you here?”

Thermia grimaced.

“Um…We have business with your boss, again.”

“I see. Say, are you guys gonna kill my boss every time I get a new job?” He stared at her, then laughed. “I’m just yanking your stick, don’t worry, I always land on my feet.”

“Well, speaking of jobs. I actually have an idea for everyone here,” she said.

**********

Chronic bobbed his head to imaginary music as he walked toward the explosion. His shoulder, arm and hips joined the dance as he drew closer. He found some rolled-up sticky leaf on the ground but discarded it because it was covered in mud. He walked outside, looked to his left, and saw burn marks from the blast and a few small fires—but no bodies.

As he stepped closer, faint footsteps sounded behind him. He tried to bring his harmonica to his mouth, but a punch to his jaw spun his body around. A kick to his stomach knocked the wind out of him. Followed by an arm wrapped around his neck.

Ekio stood before him. She snatched the harmonica from his hand and threw it toward the farm’s tree line.

He was forced to his knees, and the grip on his neck loosened. “Who else are you here with?”

She looked at Cadivus and raised her eyebrows.

“She’s still with me, fuck face,” Cadivus said as he slapped his head.

Chronic grinned.

“Let me guess…you found a way to block your ears…”

“Lucky for me, one of the gentlemen in there left plenty of thick mud to use. Frankly, I’m not sure if it was worth it. I’m still waiting for them to pop. Have you any idea how annoying this feels right now?”

“So you must have had an explosive device as well, I take it?”

“Well, I guess this guy really is a genius. Good ole lighter boy at your service.”

“We can thank Thermia for finding unexploded bombs back at the vault,” Ekio said.

Chronic smiled as he understood how he was tricked.

“Where are the rest of my guards and workers?”

“They’re with our friend, she convinced them not to work for you anymore. I doubt it was too hard considering the working conditions you likely kept them under.”

“Please, bitch. What are they gonna do without me to feed them?” he said, annoyed.

“Oh you know that place you tried to take down? Dreyhal?” Cadivus said. “Well they got a whole thing for taking in migrants. So we’re sending them that way with some of your food stores.”

Chronic smiled and laughed to himself. Ekio punched his face, causing his lip to bleed.

He licked the blood on his lip and spat it onto her boot.

“So what’s the plan here, guys?”

“We’re taking you to trial in Dreyhal,” Cadivus said. “You’ll tell them what you’ve done, and free me and Thermia from our exile.”

“And why the hell would I agree to that?”

“Because if you don’t, the other plan is to let her smash you into a million pieces.”

Ekio lightly slapped his cheek with a smug look.

“Wait a second…Don’t I know you?” Chronic asked her.

Growing angry, she raised her hand to strike him again.

“Hold on a tick, love. Don’t knock his block off just yet,” Cadivus said.

She reached down and grabbed Chronic’s cheeks with one hand and squished them together.

“Just pay attention, and only answer the questions we are asking.”

“Give me a moment to think about this,” he said. He looked at their faces and found no wiggle room, no empathy. He glanced at his empty fields and food stores. His dead friends in his damaged home. He grew angry inside, but kept cool on the outside.

“It’s not that we don’t have time for this,” Cadivus said. “It’s more that it’s boring to watch you think. Hurry up.”

“All right. I’ll go with you guys. Just don’t do that lame thing where you tie me up with rope and then tie yourselves to me. That’s so played out, dude.”

On queue, Cadivus began tying his hands together and wrapping his arms to his torso while Ekio held the dagger to his neck, ready to strike.

Chronic stood still and stared into her eyes, trying to remember where he knew her from. He finally remembered, and accidentally moved his eyebrows. Ekio noticed the movement, and a look of worry came over her face. He turned back to look at Cadivus and then back at her once more. It wasn’t worry. It was…fear.

“Upsy-daisy, Mr. Hazy,” Cadivus said as he lifted Chronic to his feet. He tied two ropes around Chronic and the end of those ropes to his and Ekio’s wrist. “You do know you always smell like rotten ass, don’t you?”

“I got some nasty good shit, son!” Chronic said. “It is what it is.”

They walked toward the tree line where they could see Thermia waving from the shade of the trees.

“You know what’s nice about owning property?” Chronic asked while they walked toward her.

“It would be my pleasure to gag you,” Ekio said.

“When you own your own property, you learn where all the ditches are!”

With that, he threw his body into a deep ditch, and the binding ropes on their wrist dragged them with him. After landing, he whistled a tune. Thermia ran toward them.

Ekio realized what was happening.

“Cadivus! Cover your ears!” She looked around the mangled mess of bodies to meet his eyes. He was on the ground in the fetal position, clenching every muscle in his body, his eyes closed. He was already under the spell, struggling to fight it off.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Chronic had cradled his face in between his legs. A few hard kicks from her did not stop the whistling. Her mind raced. She directed wind towards Cadivus, and his body was swept up in it, rising into the air above them, tethered to theirs. Concentrating, she pushed until his ears bled. The pain in his ear drums seemed to overtake the pain of his powers releasing. Still, his body released flames, and he shrieked, trying to rub the flames away. The chain on his arm rapidly expanded and coiled onto the ground beneath him.

The rope around his wrist caught flame and snapped, sending him flying out of the ditch. His soaring, inflamed body collided with Thermia, knocking her out cold.

Ekio, now enraged, grabbed Chronic’s body and threw him into the side of the ditch, knocking all the wind out of him. He raised his head from in between his legs, but she held his forehead down and grabbed onto his lower lip. She yanked the lip off his face, and he screamed in agony, blood streaming down his chin.

His suffering filled her with a rush of adrenaline, and she smiled.

She grabbed his body again and threw him out of the ditch, toward Cadivus. She tried to jump out herself, but a sharp pain sparked from her thigh. A dagger stuck into it. She hadn’t even noticed.

She yanked the dagger out, sheathing it back. She then used his body as an anchor as she climbed up the rope, and pulled herself over the ledge. Beyond him, Cadivus sat in the dirt with a thousand-yard stare on his face. She walked over to him, dragging Chronic along with her. He groaned with every stick and rock his body slid over.

In front of Cadivus, she sat and put her hands on his face. He still didn’t seem to notice her. His eyes were dry, he looked as if he would start sobbing any second. She wished he would.

“Hey, hey, hey,” she spoke softly.”Everything’s fine. Everyone’s fine.”

His eyes stopped fixating on the distance and looked directly into hers.

“What!” he screamed in her face. “I can’t hear you! You need to speak louder!”

Her face scrunched together.

“Everything’s fine!” she yelled. “Nobody was hurt bad!”

“Okay! Good!” He gave a thumbs up. “My ears are ringing!”

“I know!”

“I said my ears are ringing!” he yelled even louder.

She placed a finger over his mouth and nodded. She then hugged him. “I’m glad your okay,” she whispered.

“Your leg!” he screamed into her ear, pointing at the blood.

She jumped.

“You okay?”

“I’m fine!” she yelled back.

“Ah! Not so loud.” he said. “I think the ringing stopped…well, most of it anyway.” He looked past her and saw Chronic lying on his side, the lower half of his face covered in blood. “Interesting solution. I’m impressed. Is he?”

She glanced over her shoulder.

“He’ll live. He won’t be able to whistle, but he’ll live.”

He held her hand and hung his head.

A rope wrapped around her neck, she couldn’t breathe. Cadivus jumped up to help, but Chronic pulled her down on top of him and held the rope tight. Cadivus couldn’t get his fingers under the rope to break it, nor could he loosen the grip of the hands holding it. Chronic’s gargled laughter echoed. As her face turned purple, he placed his fingers on the rope and summoned what little piece of flame he could.

“Come on! Come on!” he screamed as it nipped at the bindings.

Her eyes drifted away.

“Burn!”

Light flashed, and the rope snapped.

He grabbed her and dragged her away, thankful to hear her gasping for breaths. “I’ll take care of this. Just give me a minute.”

He then faced Chronic, who now stood in front of him. Chronic pulled his hands apart, breaking his bonds. Cadivus did not hesitate and charged toward him. He went to tackle him to the ground but was met with an elbow to the back of his head. He was sent to the ground, tasting the grass. Chronic grabbed onto his back, and lifted him up, and threw him into a bale of hay.

“Don’t think I’ve forgotten what you did, fucker.” Chronic said, his voice sounding odd without his lower lip.

Cadivus got up, cracked his neck, and stretched out his back.

“You don’t get it. You weren’t ever supposed to forget it. If you did, there wouldn’t be any need to drag you back to Dreyhal. So, I’m going to hit you just hard enough, so you don’t lose that precious memory I need.”

Chronic ran to strike his chest, but he turned to his side and slammed an elbow into his injured mouth. He followed up with a knee to the stomach and a headbutt to his temple. Chronic fell to the ground, rubbing his head. “How far do you want this to go, elk boy? Because after what you did, I’m prepared to go a whole lot farther.”

Chronic let his head fall back onto the ground. He was silent for a moment.

“Fine. We’ll do it your way.”

Cadivus tied him up before going to check on Ekio.

She was already sitting up, rubbing her neck.

“We should have just beat him bloody when we caught him. That tricky little bastard.”

“Well, when my brother has him executed, I’ll put a good word in for you to be the executioner,” he said, causing her to smile and nod.

“Great.” He helped Ekio to her feet. “I’ll grab Thermia. Let’s go have a rest in the shade afterward. We could all use a minute.”

She nodded before dragging the lipless man once more. Her smile grew brighter with his every moan.

He walked over to Thermia and shook her. She groaned and took light breaths. A bruise had already started to form on the side of her head. He picked her up and walked toward their meet-up spot.

“We need to get you a helmet, sis.”

Ekio placed Chronic against a tree, undid her wrist strap and secured him to it. Cadivus laid Thermia down and poured some water on her face. He wasn’t sure why but thought it might help. It accomplished nothing.

Ekio sat next to him and bandaged her leg.

“That sonofabitch said, ‘I hope you don’t tie me up and then tie me to you two,’” Cadivus muttered. “So, of course, I was thinking that was exactly what I was gonna do because he didn’t want that. Who would've thought that it was a dastardly trick the whole time?! Some kinda backward talkology. I guess Hunter was right about that whole genius thing after all.”

“He’s not a genius,” Ekio said. “He’s just a lucky thug.”

“I do know you…” Chronic’s strained voice said. “I …know you. Ekio. Aries Ekio.”

“Shut it!” she snapped and threw a handful of dirt at him.

He smiled and laughed.

“Aires Ekio…The survivor. Why did you come all this way, Ekio?”

“You know why.”

“Next time you’ll think twice before you get a whole village addicted to your sticky leaf and ruin them,” Cadivus said. “Or more preferably, never get the opportunity to do it all.”

“Whole village?” He laughed and coughed. “No, no. For some reason, your people didn’t like my plants, did they?”

“I said shut it!” she snapped.

“What is the pissant going on about now?” Cadivus asked.

“Nothing. He’s just trying to get under my skin.”

“What did you tell this man?” Chronic laughed again, swallowing blood. He coughed even harder. “Oh, Ekio…Did you lie to this man you so dearly love?”

She pulled out her dagger and walked toward him. Her whole body shook.

“I’ll take your tongue next if you don’t stop!”

Cadivus looked on, trying to understand.

“What does he mean by you lying to me?”

“I gave a short version of what had happened. I wasn’t ready to talk about it in detail.”

“You said he’s responsible for the death of your entire village.”

“He is!” she screamed, turning towards him. Tears formed in her eyes.

Cadivus looked down to see the dagger pointed at him now.

“You can trust me,” he said softly. “You can tell me what happened. I love you. Nothing's gonna change that.”

She turned away from him, placing a hand on her hip and another on her mouth.

“I could tell him for you…” Chronic said.

“I am not gonna say it again jus—”

“Let him talk,” Cadivus said. “I need to hear this. If he lies, just tell me he’s lying, and I’ll believe you.”

She turned away from both of them.

He motioned with his hand for Chronic to continue.

“Where she comes from, there is always war. Aires is necessary to keep the balance.” He coughed, his voice growing raspier. “There’s stress in being a leader, the leader. She asked me for help, so I helped her. Gave her some of my product, and something a little stronger if things got tough.” He spit more blood onto the ground.

“So she took the edge off? So what?”

Chronic shook his head.

“Biggest battle yet. Scouted days in advance. A tribe killer. When the fighting started, Aires was in her bed, unconscious from taking too much.”

Cadivus looked at Ekio, her body fidgeting.

“They hid her. But the battle…They killed everyone. She wasn’t there to lead…to fight. I guess she blames me for that.”

“Because it’s your fault!” Ekio turned toward him. “If you never came, that wouldn’t have happened!” She yelled words in her own language, her voice a mix of devastation and anger. “You never told me” —she fell to her knees—“what would happen, what it does to you…You’re a liar!”

Chronic rolled his eyes.

Cadivus walked over to her and lifted her up to him. She refused to look at his face, so he cupped her cheek and lifted her head.

“Tell me he’s lying,” he said. “And I’ll believe you. I don’t care what happened. Who am I to judge you?”

She pushed him away, her crying ceased. She looked directly into his eyes with malicious intent.

“Do you trust me?” She held her hand toward Chronic. “Would you believe me?”

The wind stirred around her.

“Yes…” he whispered.

The wind around her picked up speed, gathering bits of dust and dirt that circled around her. She reached out her other hand and placed it onto her colorful bracelet.

“A bead for every life lost that day…” She ripped the bracelet apart and the beads got caught in the wind around her. They created a blur of color, a stirring beauty. “Every life that you stole that day!”

Chronic just leaned his head back against a tree.

“You don’t have to do this!” Cadivus said. “Please! You don’t have to do this!”

Still the wind’s intensity increased with her standing tall within the eye of the storm.

He tried to push through the storm but pulled back after receiving several deep cuts on his hand and arm. He got on his knees and held his hands together.

“Please. We need him…”

She turned to him.

“You say that you love me?” Her eyes watered once more. “Since I have been here, I have not trusted anyone as much as I have trusted you, so do not lie to me now!” The colors danced around her. “Do you?”

“Yes…” he answered as he stared into her eyes, unblinking.

“Then take my power.”

Cadivus was caught off guard. But he still closed his eyes, trying to remember the feeling of Chronic releasing his fire powers, and focused it on his siphoning abilities. In his mind’s depth he saw a string to pull on, but when he reached for it, he couldn’t grasp it.

He opened his eyes to find her staring at him. He kept focusing as hard as he could, grimacing and grinding his teeth. He grunted and screamed.

“Come on!” His face drenched in sweat. The veins in his neck tightened and he turned red. “Fuck! Come on!”

She turned her head back toward Chronic as a single tear rolled down her cheek. When it hit the ground, she sent the beads hurling toward Chronic at sound-breaking speeds.

Chronic closed his eyes and screamed as tiny bits of shrapnel tore through him. She screamed with rage as the color that danced around her found its way through him. Cadivus could only watch as the beads reduced his body to nothing but a liquified mess against a tree.

When the last bead was thrown, Chronic was long dead.

The wind around her disappeared. She looked down at Cadivus, her face solemn and her eyes now dry.

“Why would you…” he said.

She leaped into the air, summoned a large shield, and pushed the wind beneath it to propel her high and away.

He watched as she disappeared from his sight. “I knew that bitch could fly.”