We Can Be Heroes ...?

14

It wasn't a big rabbit, but it was blue. A little blue rabbit that made lazy hops this way and that, raising a back leg to scratch its ear and basically act like a rabbit. Mila had insisted that Shion see it just to show how useless it was, despite Shion stating, several times, that, no, she didn't really need to see the rabbit to believe Mila. Nevertheless, Mila had conjured the rabbit and there it was. Shion wished she'd brought a carrot in her rations.

"It does barely any damage, hardly goes where you want it to go and, no, you can't eat one if we get hungry because it disappears after only a few minutes, or immediately if it dies, which it does really quickly." She looked down at her rabbit, forlorn at her lack of abilities at her current 'level'. "I used to call it 'Bob'. Because it bobbed along, you know, but then no-one ever asked why it was called Bob and so I never got to give the punchline for the joke. So now it's an it."

"So, you can only summon one?" Shion kneeled down, stroking back the rabbit's ears. It was so fluffy! "Can't you summon one after you've summoned Bob? Is he fast? Most rabbits I've ever seen are fast. I think. I'm not sure I actually remember seeing a rabbit."

"She c'n only summo' one Bob a' a time." Dave hid behind Jova. He clearly hated rabbits as much as he hated goats. "She summo's another, Bob's gone. Poof! Disappears."

"But Bob is fast." Jova clapped her hands and Bob the blue rabbit bounded away quicker than Shion could react. "I miss Bob. Mila never summons him much anymore. She prefers to struggle to a higher level and get wolf summoning, then wolf pack. Now, they deal some damage."

Bob began to fade and then disappeared and Shion felt a little disappointed. Regardless, they had wasted enough time sitting here discussing their abilities and had learned nothing of consequence. Nothing that Shion believed could help them reach all the totem pieces and then the fifth brazier. They had to get going.

Standing, she brushed the dirt from her tight leather armour and turned toward the direction Mila had said they needed to go. She had moved a few feet onward before she realised she had walked on alone and, looking back, the others didn't appear in any hurry to move on. Shion couldn't believe that they still milled around when they knew what was at stake. Not only here, but back home at the farm.

"We should go, shouldn't we?" She waved both hands to urge them to catch up, but they didn't look as though they had any intention of moving. "If we don't find these totem pieces, the Arch-Necromancer will escape his prison! Who knows what evil he could do in the world above if he isn't stopped!"

"I' will be fine. No rush." Once again, Dave started to roll a cigarette. "We jus' need t' gathe' our though's."

"Oh, absolutely! No rush at all!" Reaching out for Shion, Jova pulled her back, clinging to her arm and giving her that wide grin. "We can spend a little time getting to know one another. Won't that be fun?"

Something odd was happening here and Shion narrowed her eyes trying to understand what it was. Mila, usually the one to throw caution to the wind, had started to show a keen interest in the the frescos upon a nearby, fallen wall. Jova had a grin plastered upon her face that looked painful. Painful and not quite real. And Dave continued to roll his cigarette, oblivious to everything, or so it appeared. Shion caught him making shifty glances up as he worked.

"You're scared." Rushing up to him, Shion swatted the half-made cigarette from his hands and tried to catch his eye, bobbing and weaving her body. "You're all scared! Well, I'm scared, too, but being scared is no excuse. I need to get out of here so I can truly find someone to help Papa, and we need to stop this Nukrambuzer before he escapes. That man said ..."

"That man was reeling off a script, NPC! It doesn't matter if we go now, or a million years from now. The Arch-Necromancer will always be just about to escape. It. Is. A. Game!" That was the Mila Shion had come to know. Explosive, dismissive, but certainly not a coward. "Except, this time, we could seriously, finally die and that ... that's scary. We have a few resurrection stones, but nowhere near enough to get us through ... this."