We Can Be Heroes ...?

18

Actually heading through the traps proved a little more difficult than expressing her defiance toward Mila. It didn't help to hear the twin stating, loudly, that Shion hadn't shown the same amount of care when she had suggested using Bob to lure the skeletons away. The difference, and Shion truly hoped it was a difference, was that Bob the rabbit had a chance to evade the skeletons. The summoned rabbit had little to no chance to evade the traps.

About to toss the stone and pass on to the clear section between the shooting flames and the spikes, she took one last look behind, only to find no-one else even ready to follow her. None held stones to throw, either. She had almost begun to pass through the traps without any support from the others and felt a little betrayed by that.

"Well?" She pointed to several stones and then at Dave and Jova before waving her hand to urge them to follow. "Or do you want your only healer to go on alone without you? I'm sure Dave would have survived the first skeletons without me, and Jova would certainly have recovered from the chieftain hitting her. Correct? I'll just be going on ahead, then."

She picked up several more rocks, ready to throw them at the pressure plate. Four would be enough, but six gave her the option of missing. Before throwing the first stone, she tried to guess how wide the strip between the shooting flames and the rising spears was. About a foot and a half, maybe a little more than that. Space enough, but she would probably find some part of her singed, at least.

Without waiting any longer, she tossed the first stone at the metal plate, waited for the flames to erupt from the ground and then recede, before jumping between the two traps. As she landed, she wobbled, trying to keep her balance as she saw another metal plate where the spears came out. She didn't want to test whether that plate also triggered the traps. The other traps finished their cycle and Shion prepared to use her next stone, only to hear something clatter upon the first metal plate.

Behind her, the flames burst upward once again, in front of her, the spears thrust out from the ground and, in a panic, Shion jumped forward again, not even certain who had set of the trap sequence again. Without warning her? It must have been Mila, only to find Jova behind her, mouthing 'sorry' and gritting her teeth in mock, meek apology. Shion could have said something but the trap sequence had already come to an end and now Dave stepped up, bouncing a rock in his hand.

He tossed the stone, watched the flames shoot upward as though he had never seen them before and then sauntered forward, stepping over the metal plate. At the same time he stepped forward, the spikes sprang up and Jova made her jump. As she jumped, the darts spurted upward and Shion had to move again and now three of them were caught in the embrace of the tiny safe strips between the traps.

Then it came to Mila's turn and she held up her staff, summoning Bob to her in a flash of light, no worse for wear from his seeming fiery demise. Unless it was a different Bob and now, in the middle of one the most tense situations of her life, Shion found herself wondering if any of the Bobs she had seen were the same ones, or whether a new Bob, a totally different Bob appeared every time.

Regardless, Mila held all their eyes as Bob sat at her feet, scratching at the dusty ground, ears twitching one way and another. Her lips were thin lines, showing no emotion at all, cheeks and jaw tight as she tapped the butt of the staff against her leg before she raised the staff, dismissing Bob. In her other hand, she revealed a fist-sized stone, which she threw at the trigger plate, sending fire climbing upward in gouts.

They all performed their little jumping dance, Shion coming out the other side unscathed, turning to watch the others. For some reason, all the others had only picked up one stone each and Shion could now, finally, see why they said they weren't very good at adventuring. Without stones, they would have had to have used Bob. Except, until Shion had urged her to, Mila hadn't ever even learned how to make Bob do what she wanted. Without her, they would all have found themselves caught between the traps.