Chapter 90: The game of chicken.

Chapter 90 - The game of chicken.If not for the dark brown color and drier looking leaves, Lee would've been certain that batches of aloe were growing around the pond. It wasn't some kind of divine panacea, but the plant was one of the best known remedies against, well, almost anything.

At least that was what Lee remembered from Alan's notes.

Both Freeda and Tess also used it, and if the plant Lee was currently looking at had similar characteristics, it would be silly to pass the opportunity.

Strangely enough, after cut in halves, the leaves were rather succulent and gave a refreshing sensation after rubbed on the skin. The bitter taste had similar effect, and Lee decided to make another experiment.

After telling the two brothers to rest for a while, under their curious eyes he began to clean the aloe leaves, cut them in small pieces, and throw in the waterskin. Contrary to the brothers, he didn't intend to eat the remaining stew, but prepared a drink that would refresh him for the remaining time he had to spend in Inferno Wastes.

When Lee was satisfied with the amount of aloe he gathered, he remembered about Jiraxa. The girl slept there, without making a sound, and Lee went over to her and rubbed aloe's juice on her forehead, neck and shoulders. He wasn't sure if it was going to help, but since it couldn't get much worse, he decided to try to see if it would.

Then he glanced at the two curious pairs of eyes, thought for a bit, and went over to Thorax. The guy's leg looked worse than yesterday, and it was obvious he was in pain, but believing it was some kind of punishment for his own foolish behavior, Thorax suffered in silence.

Rubbing the plant directly on an irritated skin was probably not the best idea, therefore Lee chopped one of the leaves and put the rough paste he made on the leg. Then tore a piece off Thorax's trousers and bandaged the wound with it. The job was crude, but this surely was better than tortoise's fat.

"Alright! Now we can leave." Lee said, and got up, only to get another interruption.

This time a serious one.

From the side of the valley the squad arrived earlier, a person was running. And they were incredibly fast – from the looks of it they possessed a wind spark. It was also possible they ran so fast because of the beast that showed up few moments later.



Neither made a sound, and they more resembled two fast moving ghosts, except the one in front had a terrified expression, but the other – teeth that could easily bite a person in halves.

The bull-sized lizard was mostly running on two legs, but sometimes made long leaps, and landed on all four, but then recovered and continued on two again. Strangely enough, despite its size, its steps were completely silent, almost as if its feet didn't touch the ground.

"A spark!" Arax reacted first, saying the magic word, and darted away to grab his sword, and his brother followed to catch the shell that was about to fall on top of Jiraxa.

It was surprising to see Thorax still had strength left after the previous fight, and making it look like this was another exercise, he lifted the tortoise shell above his head, and rushed towards the beast. It was almost as if the two devils didn't want to spoil the peaceful atmosphere and for a change didn't roar or shout.

The escapee ran past Lee without saying anything or looking back, but the latter was frozen at the sight of Thorax trying to play the game of chicken with the beast. He ran directly at it, with Arax following few steps behind, but in the end neither beast nor the devil chickened out.

Lee only noticed the tortoise shell suddenly light up in yellow color when the sound resembling a falling building destroyed the valley's tranquility.

In the first exchange the devil lost. Obviously the beast was faster, heavier and stronger, and from the impact Thorax flew over fifty yards and landed in the pond. He did seem alright, at least the wooaaaa! that he shouted on the way, sounded more like a cheer than a cry of pain.

But the victory the beast had was short. The flying devil had a brother who already ducked before Thorax was sent flying, and the moment he was face to face with the dazed beast, Arax cleaved horizontally, his sword burning in red flames.

Either it was too big or too tough, the beast didn't die. But it didn't get a chance to roar in pain either.

Lee was already familiar with Arax's combo – cleave and then slash from above, and as usual, the second part completely disabled the beast.

Lee would've loved to be closer to see the shock on Arax's face when he didn't manage to kill the target in the usual manner, but the devil quickly recovered, and a couple of stabs with the flaming sword were enough to end the beast's misery.

"Does it have it? Does it?" A loud shout from the pond indicated Thorax was alright, but while Arax wasn't worried about him and Lee kind of felt the guy would manage, the earlier pray that ran past them finally stopped and speechlessly gawked at his rescuers.

"Should be earth!" Arax loudly replied, still trying to dig the spark out, "It used some kind of ability when you crashed."



"Is the shell alright?" Thorax asked something that almost made Lee fall over on the spot. The guy was climbing out of the pond on wobbling legs, but apparently his own condition didn't bother him, "I've decided to take it with us."

"Isn't it too ... inconvenient?" Lee tried to find the proper wording, but Thorax shook his head.

He said, "I already thought it through. I know a guy in Ashland who will attach some straps, making a real shield out of it."

"Why don't you skin these things and cover the shield with spikes while you're at it?" Lee laughed, but his sarcastic remark was immediately celebrated.

"What a great idea!" Thorax's eyes lit up.

He walked over to the tortoise shell, inspected it as if it was his baby, and then went to skin the beasts with quills they killed earlier.

"How do you feel?" Lee asked Jiraxa who woke up from the ruckus.

"I ... I don't know?" She said, "What happened?"

"Those two got another spark." Lee said with a shrug and checked her forehead.

Surprisingly it was much cooler than few moments ago when he applied the aloe juice on her. Only then he realized his own headache and nausea had passed along with the thirst.

'Ok, this is new!' He said to himself and went back to the pond to get more aloe leaves.

While cleaning and cutting them, he drank from the waterskin to make more room, and immediately filled it with pieces of aloe. Obviously, by now he realized it wasn't the aloe he knew, but the effects were so good he was not leaving a leaf behind.

After Arax was done, he went over to his brother and helped to skin the beasts, while Jiraxa assisted Lee with his task, although not understanding what exactly he was doing. The earlier escapee awkwardly sat on the ground fifty or so yards away, not daring to approach the squad or simply being too shy.



***

It was late afternoon when they all were finally done, and this time it didn't take much effort for Lee to persuade everyone it was time to return. No one was ready to miss the rift next morning and stay behind.

The procession of Lee and Jiraxa walking in front with the devils carrying the tortoise shell filled with the quill-covered pelts did look funny, but the lone figure that followed them, the guy who was escaping earlier, didn't think so. These guys were strong!

The contents of their discussions were weird, though.

"I think this earth spark will be a good one for Jiraxa." Arax mused out loud.

"Oh, you want her to join your squad?" Lee was surprised.

"Mhm. I like her." Arax said.

"Of course, you like her." Thorax snorted, "Her scales are bright and shiny."

"True." Arax nodded, "You also like her."

"Of course! Her scales are bright and shiny! What's not to like!" Thorax's expression changed into one full of confusion.

'Good thing they have become impotent because of the stew.' Lee thought to himself, 'Otherwise it would be sad to see brothers fight for the same girl.'

He decided to use the opportunity, though. He was still clueless regarding sparks, but the devil brothers claimed to have two each. This was great timing to milk them of their knowledge.