Indigo (NaNoWriMo13)

Chapter 10 - Weaponised Turtle

Dedicated to NerdyNinja1 ~ The first of the people commenting and throwing cookies at me to get me through NaNo. <3 

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Chapter 10 - Weaponised Turtle

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Shift nodded. “Anything I need to know?”

Athira looked at him. “You’re not fighting. You’re going to sit back and dodge any missiles that may come at you while Talon and I take care of him.”

“Or I can help and we get this thing done faster,” said Shift.

Athira raised an eyebrow at him. “And how are you going to help take down a demon entity whose ankle you barely come up to?” she asked. “Your colour won’t work in here.”

Shift flexed his hand, letting the tingle flow through his veins. “My colour’s there. I can feel it. If I can shift some of your colour--“

“My colour?” Athira shook her head. “Shift, don’t take this the wrong way, but it’d be like giving a bazooka to a turtle. You might have capability, but you’d have no idea what to do with it.”

Shift wasn’t entirely sure what to make of that comment, so he persisted. “Sometimes you just gotta give the turtle a go!”

“And that’s about the time someone discovers a new dish cooked with turtle meat,” said Athira. “You couldn’t even take me -- don’t interpret that as a challenge -- let alone something directly controlled by Rathe. And once you figure out that I’m right, you’d be stuck in limbo for all eternity and then Zoe would kill me.”

They drifted into silence for the next few minutes. Athira seemed to think the matter was settled, but he’d be damned if he was letting her charge that thing armed with only a bird.

There has to be something I can do, thought Shift, although quieter this time. He considered trying to shift Talon to see what he could get, but decided against it.

They were almost at the base of the ridge now. Enormous shards cleaved off the face of the mountains lay scattered around their base, some half submerged in pools of glowing fire. It caught Shift’s eye, and he started towards it.

I don’t even have to touch it, I can just--

A black wall appeared in front of him, barring him from the pool. Strangely enough, despite the black colour he saw it through; the pool retained its red glow even as the rest of the colours submitted to the black and traced themselves with a white outline.

Shift turned back to see Athira’s hand raised and coated in black.

“Don’t try to shift that,” she said, dropping her hand and the wall with it. “It’s not your usual red colour. It’s beyond the visible spectrum, and I don’t know what it’d do to you if you tried to use it. You can only see it because of the mindscape and the amount of heat it’s emitting.”

Shift sighed.

“Okay, second question--“

Athira silenced him with a hand, eyes scanning the ridges. “Shh. Do you hear that?” she said.

“I don’t hear anything,” said Shift.

Nope, said Talon.

“Exactly.” She pulled up her cowl and pulled the front of her cloak shut. “It’s coming.”

It felt you use the colour, said Talon.

Athira grit her teeth. “I know. I didn’t even try to restrain myself, it was a reflex.” She swore softly. “I’m an idiot. Didn’t even think--“