Acantha was on fire. In both the most literal and most painful sense.
Jade dropped her blade and ran towards her friend while reaching for the water barrel on her back. She slipped it off her shoulder, lifted the lid off and threw the contents over Acantha, dousing the fire with a stream of water.
“Aaghhbrfhrl!” shouted Acantha. She heaved. Eyes wide open.
“You’re ok,” said Jade reassuringly, holding the barrel up high to aid the continuous stream of water in Acantha’s direction. She checked her friend for burns. “Show me where it hurts.”
Acantha pointed at her chest and right shoulder and turned it towards the continuous stream of water to cool down. For a moment, it was quiet. All quiet besides the ragged breathing of Acantha.
“Th- Th-,” she stammered, still wide eyed, but with a stabilized breathing. Then she frowned. She stepped out of the stream and turned to Morn. “You!” Her voice had dropped three octaves: “What were you thinking!”
“It got away,” said Morn. Jade looked up towards the ceiling and saw the last remnants of the blob-statue defender disappear through a crack in the ceiling. Their enemy had escaped. But that didn’t bother Jade. She was rather done fighting. If it didn’t want to fight, then who was she to stop the creature from doing so.
“You attacked me!” Acantha growled. She started walking towards Morn. Jade set her barrel down.
“It was an accident,” said Morn.
“You threw fire on me!”
“I did,” said Morn with a solemn nod.
“Are you stupid?” She had to look up to keep looking the orc in the eye.
“No.” Their hairless eyebrows came down to form two clashing dunes separated by a thin canal.
“Arrgh!” she screamed and threw her thorny vines at Morn. Iratus stepped in and smacked the vine away with the halberd he had managed to claim from the statue.
Jade hastened to grab a hold of Acantha who was now grappling with Iratus.
“Get a hold of yourself,” said Iratus.
“Calm down,” said Jade and she hugged Acantha from behind, preventing her arms from moving.
“Let me go!” She whipped her vines around in a flurry, cutting both Iratus and Jade in the process. Jade felt a sharp sting and yelped. Involuntarily she let go of her friend. Acantha turned and saw the gash in Jades arm.
Acantha started: “I’m s-”
“Don’t touch me!” Jade pulled away her arm. She stepped back and looked around. Everyone staring at her. She held her hand over her bleeding shoulder and walked back to her water barrel. She looked for the lid and put it back on, before she hoisted it on her back. Being careful not to let the rope scrape her upper arm.
“You should apologize,” said Iratus behind her. Morn grunted and said:
“It was not my intention to hurt you.”
Jade felt with her feet. There were the six of them. Their enemy had definitely ran off. That was probably for the best. Her arm was throbbing. It looked as if she had just climbed out of brambles, which, considering the nature of Acantha’s vines, made a lot of sense. She rubbed some of the blood off her arm and winced. The wounds were not very deep, but they were deep enough to be painful. They stung her. Naggingly. Annoying her like unanswerable questions. How typical.
She traced her steps back towards her blade and picked it up. Kevins had walked towards her.
“Nice of you,” he said.
“Hmm?” Jade sheathed her blade.
“You really care for her, don’t you?”
Jade looked at Acantha, who was talking to Lumira at this point. Apparently Morns apology, if it could be called that, had been enough.
“I have cared more for her than she will ever know,” said Jade. The moment those words left her mouth, she regretted having said them. She looked at Kevins, who grinned widely, showing his sharp canines.
“Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me.”
Jade shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. Even if you tell her, she won’t understand. I care for both of them. All of you. Not that it matters.”
“You underestimate her.”
“Kevins, you barely know her-”
“I have lived with her for over a year, I speak Stare. I can read her every gesture, every look, every smell.”
Jade scoffed, “Glad to hear that you two are so intimate.”
“Don’t,” Kevins snarled “Mock me. I only tell you she is capable of feeling.”
“Thanks,” Jade said, unimpressed, “Let me know if she ever has feelings for someone besides herself.”
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.