Trekking through the desert is hard work no matter how physically fit one is. Sand absorbs and displaces any force exerted against it, so the result of walking through it is one has to expend roughly 50% more effort to simply move across the surface than hard packed dirt or pavement.
This fact was not lost on Tirga and Sheila as they trudged along at a maddeningly slow rate of speed. Both of them had, at one time or another, gone through deserts in pursuit of criminals or to get to an out-of-the-way town in the middle of nowhere, but this was something else entirely. Not only were they bolstered by their werecat endurance during those previous journeys, but no wasteland they had encountered before had been this… dead. It was as if the land had given up the ghost and consigned itself to slow decomposition without hope of restoration. Just another reason to find Gaja all the faster.
“How many dunes now?” asked Tirga, huffing a bit.
“I stopped counting at seventy-six,” Sheila answered.
Dialogue was sparse between the two. Any effort not being actively put into walking was best spent at a time when they had something important to say.
All of a sudden, Sheila jerked her head over to look at the distance away from where they were currently heading. Her eyes scanned the horizon intently, as if expecting to see something. Tirga noticed her stopping and trotted up beside her, trying to see whatever it is she saw. “What is it?”
“I don’t know... It looked like something was moving…”
Before Tirga could inquire what she meant, gouts of sands erupted all around them as creatures from below threw off their sandy tombs. Huge scorpions, at least six feet long with razor sharp claws and wicked-looking tails took up positions around the surprised pair of werecats in human form.
“What in the hells?!” Tirga exclaimed, calling Fire Claw, his enchanted flail to him.
Sheila did likewise for Ice Fang, her magical scimitar. “I thought Dr. Diggers said this world was LOW in magic!”
“He did!”
“Then tell me why we’re facing off against giant freaking scorpions!”
There was no more time for discussion as the scorpions came in quickly, attacking from all sides at once. Sheila brought her sword down on one of their claws, severing it and making the creature skitter away, hissing in pain. Another lashed out with it’s tail, which Sheila dodged back away from. She tried to disengage from the circle the creatures had backed her into, but found that the scorpions were actively moving with her to prevent her from breaking out.
‘Damn!’ she mentally cursed. ‘These things are intelligent too? This just isn’t my day!’
Tirga found himself in similar straits, but with the added restriction of being bereft of his werecat strength and agility. In nearly every fight he had gotten into, he could rely on those two things helping him out, but unless he wanted to shred his clothes, he had to handle this encounter sans superhuman abilities.
Evading an overhead stinger, Tirga lashed out with his flail, bashing one of the things backwards with a chipped mandible. Another attack cracked it’s outer carapace, but Tirga was unable to follow up as more scorpions swarmed in to take the injured one’s place. He found himself on the defensive, dodging claw swipes and tail stings while being herded into an ever-shrinking circle of scorpion death.
Finally, Tirga and Sheila stood back-to-back with one another. There was nowhere else to run that would not result in getting cut into or stung. “This is getting tiring,” Sheila grumbled.
“Yeah, really. Who ever heard of intelligent insects, anyway?”
Throwing a mischievous glance at her husband, Sheila grinned wryly. “I think we’ve held back long enough, don’t you?”
Tirga reciprocated the look and facial expression. “Oh, absolutely.”
Turning back to their aggressors, Tirga and Sheila called upon their individual weapon’s destructive capabilities.
“ICE KAPOWIE!” cried out Sheila as she smashed her scimitar into the ground. A chilling stream of ice flew from the impact point and crashed into the tightly-packed scorpions. Several of them were frozen outright, and numerous others were cut into by ice crystals that spontaneously formed around the icy prison their brethren were encased in.
“FIRE CRUSH!” Tirga called out as he summoned a massive gout of flame to appear around his swiftly-twirling chain. All scorpions in it’s path were reduced to ash instantly, and quite a few on the periphery of the attack suffered severe burns when the flame licked at their bodies.
The few remaining scorpions that were capable of movement quickly skittered away from the two ex-Edge Guard members. Tirga watched the creatures he had flash-fried stumble away, while Sheila couldn’t help but smirk as her own adversaries carried themselves out of range. “Ya’ll don’t come back now, hear?” she called after the retreating insects.
“Good job, honey,” Tirga said as he dismissed his weapon.
Doing the same as her husband, Sheila leaned down to him and smirked. “You too, baby.” She pulled Tirga into a deep kiss that lasted until she had to pull back to get some air.
“YES!” Sheila exclaimed, pumping her fist in the air. “That’s what I missed! Mortal combat with nameless baddies that no one cares if you kapowie real good!” She had to admit, life on Earth was good, but she grew up on Jade. Hunting down monsters and the like really appealed to her, and there just wasn’t much call for it on her adopted world. Over the years, she had accepted the fact there would be no further “adventures”, at least not while they were raising the kids, but since they were grown up… or at least one was…
Tirga noticed his wife’s rapidly-vanishing good mood. Only a moment before, she had stood exultant on the field of battle, and now it looked as if she was going to cry. “Sheila?” he asked hesitantly. “Are you ok?”
“Oh Tirga!” she cried out and threw herself into his arms. “He’s all alone on this horrible world! We’ve only been here a couple hours and we’ve had to fight giant scorpions! Who knows what he’s had to… had to…” The rest of her words were swallowed up by her sobs as she sank further into Tirga’s embrace.
For his part, Tirga simply stood strong and stroked his wife’s hair. Sheila had always been prone to emotional outbursts, and anything having to do with their son only exacerbated the matter. There was nothing he could do to magically take away her worry, although he wished for all the world that there was. “Shhh… It’ll be ok. He’s alive. We’ll find him, and we’ll take him home. Everything will be fine.”
With a tear-streaked face, Sheila looked up at him hopefully. “You mean it?”
Tirga had to stifle a chuckle at her childlike behavior. Part of her never really grew up, which suited him just fine. “Cross my heart and hope to get eaten by a wild bog thresher.”
“’Kay!” Sheila popped back up to her feet and dried her eyes. “Thanks, Tirga. I needed that.”
“No problem.” He gave Sheila a smirk. “Besides, I know how delicate you are.”
“Why you little…” Sheila growled with a smile and started advancing on him.
His smile equally as large as his wife’s, Tirga held up his hands in a warding gesture. “Now, now Sheila. Remember how hot it is out here. We need to preserve our energy.”
“Don’t worry, it won’t take much energy to kapowie you.” Sheila grinned madly as her prey took off running. “Hey, get back here! You’re wasting your strength!”
“No activity that gets you out of being hit by your over-muscled significant other is wasted!” Tirga called back as Sheila took off after him.
The two ran over the hot desert sands, fatigue and general malaise forgotten. Neither of them had felt this young in years, and they fully intended to make the best of it while it lasted.
See other episodes by lil bunny MoFo
(Posted Sat, 12 Aug 2006 05:14)
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