We Can Be Heroes ...?

27

The ghosts had changed their patterns as soon as Dave had started to try to work the levers. Instead of moving in random directions, turning to change direction, stopping and generally just milling around, they now seemed to become much more organised. A series of concentric half-circles began to move around the gates and were constricting, nearing them all and, once the first ghost turned red and vicious, the others would soon follow.

"So, what, exactly, is the problem?" Ignoring the nearing ghosts, Mila yelled up to Dave, who had disappeared from view again. "Dave? Dave? Dave!"

"Wha'? Oh, righ'." He took the cigarette from his mouth and made himself comfortable, laying down to look over the edge. "See, th' thin' is, both levers need pullin' a' th' same time, yeah? I only go' the one pair of 'ands, see? An' they ain' long enough t' reach both a' th' same time."

"I'll do it! I'll climb it!" Shion wasn't prepared to let some stupid thing like not having the correct 'passive' stop her. She put every tiny drip of effort she could find within herself to climb. And failed again. "Gods! Why can't I climb? It's easy! Look, there are the handholds."

She pointed toward each handhold along the path to the top of the gates but no-one bothered to look, so she pointed to them again, more vigorously, giving them her most serious glare. That didn't make them look, either. About to stomp away, to seethe to herself, she almost ran into one of the ghosts moving closer and closer to the gates.

"I can do it." It was a whisper. The kind of whisper people used when they really didn't want people to hear what they had said. "I can move the other lever."

"What I want to know is, why have a puzzle that requires two people to have a non-compulsory passive? How many people choose 'Climb'? Seriously. How often have we ever needed 'Climb'? Never. Until ..." Jova stopped in mid-flow and turned around to her twin, confused. "You can what now?"

Mila didn't look. Instead, she leaned against the gates, pressing her forehead to the wood and stood there for precious seconds. Then, she pushed herself back, still not looking at anyone, and summoned her staff from behind her back. With her head bowed, she cast a spell and now Shion could finally see the other creature that Mila could summon. The one she said was even more useless than the Bobs.

A squirrel. Not just any old squirrel, but a larger-than-normal, fluffy-tailed, pink squirrel. With a big, pink silk bow tied to the tip of its bushy tail, and impossibly long, fluttering eyelashes. Shion wasn't even certain squirrels normally had eyelashes. This one did and they were long and fluttery. At a push, Shion could imagine Mila having the Bobs. Those blue, button-tailed rabbits. A pink squirrel was a little too far from the character of the woman Shion had come to know.

"Terry can move the lever." Without looking, Mila thrust a reluctant pointing finger to the squirrel. "Terry Nutmeg can climb and move the lever. After practicing with Bob, the Bobs, I think I can make Terry do that."

"That ... that isn't the kind of animal I'd imagine ..." Shion stopped as Mila spun around to glare at her. "... could be called 'Terry'. That's such a lovely name. Isn't it a lovely name, Jova?"

"The best thing is, Summoners can choose everything about their first animal." Jova hid from Mila's wrath behind Shion, whispering in her ear. "She literally decided to have that squirrel look like that."

"If I may in'errup'?" Ash from Dave's cigarette landed on the delicate pink fur of Terry. He used the last dregs of the roll-up to point behind them all. "Bu' you migh' wan'a ge' your ska'es on. Them ghos's are gettin' nearer."

With the urgency of the approaching ghosts, Mila made a big show of sending Terry up to the top of the gates to join Dave. Which would have looked fantastic, had Terry actually followed his orders. Instead, the squirrel continued to look up toward Mila even as she made ever more vigorous hand movements to Terry to get the summoned creature to move, which he ignored.