Warden threw a party at the county jail.
The prison band was there and they began to wail,
The band was jumpin', the joint began to swing,
You shoulda heard us knocked out jailbirds sing!
Let's rock!
Chapter 16, sucka foos!
So, boys and girls, what do you do when you find yourself directly in the middle of a fight between two large, angry, and deadly animals? Do you A) Run away screaming, B) Hide behind something, C) Cry, or D) Try and fight back?
Well, it turns out I didn’t have a chance to decide. Because right then I found out what is scarier than being caught in a scrab fight.
A three-way scrab fight. I heard a third cry through the rain, far and distant. Overhead, thunder began to roar, and I could see lightning stab down at the earth at an uncomfortably close range. One fork of electricity struck the dirt a mere seven feet away. For a second, I could see a blue scorch in the ground, as dirt leapt up in protest, and the light was surprisingly dull. It was as if the lightning wasn’t really there.
I even stopped to listen to the thunder overhead (ignoring the fact that now there were about eight scrabs heading my way), and noticed it wasn’t a full sound. You know how thunder normally sounds, kinda like a boom!-rumble-rumble, right? But this thunder didn’t echo. It was just a loud slam sound.
Another howl from the scrabs brought me to my senses. I spun around in the direction of the sound, and (as my soggy feathers whipped around to my face again, sticking to the left side of my jaw) there it was, a fully grown scrab, tearing toward me. I would have bare seconds to decide what to do (although I was wasting time thinking all this up), so I had to make it count. The scrab was twenty feet away.
Should I jump to the side? No. Scrabs turned just as quick as flint, but
sixteen feet away
it is a scrab fight, so I was sure that the second scrab, behind me, was
thirteen feet away
its prime target. Still, I was right in
eight feet
his path. Now or never! I
three feet!
dove off to my left, and felt the wind breeze past my toes as the scrab tore past me. I had a feeling that he didn’t even notice me. All his thoughts were probably on the other scrab.
Wait! Other scrabs! Plural!
It suddenly occurred to me that laying on my back in a raging storm (however unreal it seemed) while a dozen scrabs were closing in was not a predicament I would wish on my worst enemy.
I stood and looked around, but the rain was getting more intense, and it was getting harder to see. Should I try for the paramite morph again? No, no way. All the rain drops would screw with my senses. No dice. If only I could do a scrab, I’d have no problem. I mean, these scrabs seemed to be able to get through the storm without any worry. Why, wouldn’t that be some—
The Scrab Totems! Just like the Paramite Totem! I had to put it inside the mouth of the middle scrab on the totem to get the power!
Wait a minute. Didn’t I need another mudokon to help me on that?
And weren’t there, like, eight totem poles?
The answer rammed me in the face. The scrabs fighting here were a distraction! They were here to distract me from getting the power (and probably to distract each other from killing me).
I quickly wiped the rain (now as heavy and hard as rocks; it may have been hail) from my eyes, and squinted into the fog. A much welcomed fork of lightning stabbed down at the center of the circle of totem poles, illuminating the “arena.” There were now about fifty scrabs, paired off and trading howls and shouts.
Quick mental math! A fight between two scrabs lasted about five seconds. The winner spent the next ten (or so) munching on the carcass of the loser. I suppose that it would take another three seconds for each scrab to choose another scrab to fight. About fifty scrabs now … that would make about four or five rounds of fights between scrabs before there was an overall champion, ready to kill me. So … I had about a minute and a half to find a mudokon to help me, and the proper totem from which to get the power of Cicatrize the Scrab.
And the scrabs were already fighting.
By the way, it's time for a shameless advertisement for another story I will be starting once Dante's tale is told.
Not to worry, of course; this story is hardly halfway through! However, I am already thinking up ideas for my next fic!
The only thing I know about it for sure is the main character's name: Gaz, short for Gazeebo. I also know what the idea of the story is, but I'm gonna keep that under wraps for a while.
Until then, I hope you enjoy Dante's Oddysee for months to come!
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