The Cinders of Dezu

18th: Moss Linga (4)

"Talia!!!" he yelled as loud as he could, "Talia no!!!"

The sheet he was on began to lift. Cairo turned around to the curve of a rising tentacle raising him up and out of the water. He fell forward toward the sheet of ice slanting towards him. A hand found a grip on the slippery ice with just the tips of his fingers. It was no use though. He was in the sky now. The tentacle had thrown the ice sheet with Cairo attached. He soared through the air, his pose like a cat with its fur raised and its claws in the carpet. He was pitched high and far into the sky. Really high. Too high! Cairo turned around.

There in the light of the sun was the silhouette of someone. It was too bright to see. He was getting closer to them. Someone that was... floating?

"You can let go now."

Julian was smiling with both his arms slightly out in front of him.

"So you can just fly now?!" said Cairo

Julian's eyebrows jumped.

"Anti-gravity, baby."

His tone sounded very confident but then his face changed and he looked off to the side contemplatively.

"Well, you know what? Maybe not? Yeah, no I think that's what it is. I can't just fly. This is way harder than it should be."

He looked up and then looked down.

"You know, I can't think about it too much right now. It's kind of like that OCD thing you had when we were kids. When you could breathe fine and then you thought too much about breathing and then you had to think about breathing and then you started to panic because-"

"Where's Talia!!" Cairo cried as he looked down towards the water.

He tossed the ice sheet to his side and then immediately regretted it at he watched it plummet to the water below. He felt nakedness and horror at how high up they were. He started waving his arms and legs trying to grasp at something.

"She's right here," said Julian.

Cairo turned to see Talia rise up next to Julian and look down at him.

"Hey," she said with a partial smile.

Cairo started to stammer, "I thought you were- he was-"

"You thought I just fell off your back?"

"I... Uh... heh-"

Cairo recalled her earlier acrobatic monster fighting.

"Well, technically she did fall," said Julian, "if I'm understanding my powers right. I'm like... the fall guy."

Cairo shook his head and looked down as Julian laughed at his own joke. He was cut short by the loud sound of bursting water and a sizzle. Cairo looked back to see a cloud of steam next to a startled Julian. As they tried to figure out what had just happened, a body fell slumped from the cloud.

"Talia!!" Cairo screamed.

As she dropped down from them something was rising up. It looked like a very large and very fast approaching ball of water! Julian dropped them both down and the water ball missed them both, but not without leaving them with the intense sensation of passing heat. It was boiling hot. Julian looked frantically to find Talia's falling body but was distracted by a sudden upwards hailstorm of boiling water balls the size of dog houses. Julian spun Cairo and himself all around trying to dodge one after another. Julian felt hopeless to catch Talia when amongst the spinning he caught sight of the light of flames.

There she was, tumbling down and shooting water balls out of the air as she went. She was also returning fire at the source. Moss Linga had his eyes darting towards all of them, aiming and shooting from his toothy jaws. Talia was nearly to the monsters level, still risen out of the water, when Julian caught her and her fall slowed. Reaching the level of his face, a floating Talia formed wide fire rings at her sides extended a few feet from her out stretched hands. She spun them like blades at the monster, waving her arms and striking him across the head and chest. Moss Linga began covering his face to block the heat of the strikes.

"That girl is uuuh... durable," said Julian.

Cairo and Julian floated a ways up from the fight, watching Moss Linga start to let himself sink a little from the jabs.

Cairo looked on a bit slacked jawed before clearing his throat.

"Dude, she is... somethin else."

"You just think she's hot," said Julian.