A Demon With Wings

Nine

The night seems to go on forever, and it's boring.

I fiddle around, and the untouched spear catches my attention.

The spear...

I wish Jezebel were here. She would have known what to do with it. I bet, if she is really here, and she has the spear, we can win this Tournament in a matter of minutes.

Instead, we have to wait out all night. The story I tell Goodie is shit, but I don't care. I just play around with the spear and try to throw it.

Shit.

The spear misses the tree I'm aiming at by several feet.

I sigh, remembering Jezebel. She could hit anything with her spear.

A brief memory flashes by. We were goofing around a la quest, and she threw a spear through an apple on my head from fifty feet away. She even speared a cherry from fifty feet right through the center, but I was too scared to let my friends place a cherry on my head.

I try to chuck the spear again. I miss horribly again. My target is like two feet times five feet. And I'm just like five feet away from the tree.

I give up after a few more tries and decide to try and throw my khopesh instead, and it's even worse. I hit the target, but with the handle instead of the blade.

Oh well. This world is fucked up.

I settle on weaving a large piece of cloth with my rope, and Angel's as well. I hope she doesn't mind.

When the sun rises, I set a few traps around camp and my sleeping friends. Then, I wander off, but with camp in sight. I find a bush of plums about twenty feet from camp that I recognize from headquarters. They're called Sugar Plums, and they're delicious. We often serve Sugar Plum jam at breakfast. Just to test, I take a bite out of one, and the sweet, tangy flavor fills my mouth. It's the right plum.

I pick all the plums off the bushes and bundle them up in the rope blanket for later. If we can't eat them all today, we can eat them later.

When the others rise, we have a brief breakfast of juicy Sugar Plums. Then, we decide to head off and find Evangeline, or some drakons and hunting dogs to slay.

"Trixie, how do you slay a drakon again?" I ask once more.

Trixie pouts. "I told you, it's a secret!"

"TRIXIE FUCKING ALLUNI! We need to know!" I shout.

Trixie draws her knife, and Kev stands up. Kev tries to reason with Trixie.

"Trixie, we all have to live. We need to work together to defeat the Golden Team, and ultimately Satan. Then, you can turn on each other. Orson and I will not restrain you."

"Yay," agrees Trixie a little too cheerfully.

She is one crazy bitch.

I sigh and suggest that we split into pairs.

"And why would we do that?" asks Kev.

"We've got to find Evangeline."

Trixie shrugs. "She's probably already dead."

"And we've got to figure out how to slay a drakon," I press. "What about me and Goodie, and Kev with Trixie?"

"I'm sorry, Orson, but I object. I can't stand her," says Kev.

I sigh. "Then I'll go with Trixie, and you can take Goodie."

Kev and Goodie both say 'fine', and Trixie shrugs insolently.

"Kev and Goodie, try to find Evangeline. Trixie, we'll go drakon hunting," I decide. "We'll meet here tomorrow at sunrise, okay?"

Everybody else nods grimly.

I mark our current position by carving a five-pointed linear star on a tree.

"Then let's go."

Since drakons prefer open air, Trixie and I head out to the meadow while Goodie and Kev head deeper into the woods.

Trixie doesn't talk. I try socializing but she just goes on silently.

On the upside, we pick up a sword, a shield and a knife.

On the downside, we run into a drakon.

The drakon is red like flame. His eyes are fire. His breath is smoke. He roars, and sweeps the horizon. Trixie and I duck and I shield us with my shield as trees and grasses around us wither to dust.

For a second, I think of the Gold Miner Hunters. Are they still watching, booing us on, or are they minding their own business?

The drakon stomps towards us, and I have no idea what to do. Trixie backs up, so I copy her.

Then, as the drakon locks on us and is about to breath fire when stupid Trixie charges the drakon.

Is she fucking crazy?

(Yes, she probably is.)

I watch her in awe as she runs swiftly up to the massive drakon, which is about fifty metres tall and three hundred metres wide, and as the drakon is about to make her his barbecue lunch, she leaps up into the air and somersaults gracefully, landing on one knee on the drakon's neck.

Despite the situation, I clap.

The drakon tries to shake Trixie off. To counter this, Trixie ties her rope around her waist and loops it around the drakon's neck, knotting it firmly.

I'm not worried until the drakon takes flight.

The humongous creature rises slowly into the air. Trixie is barely clinging on, and I'm standing idly by about twenty metres away.

Suddenly, Trixie gives a shout, and I realize that she's dangling from the drakon upside down. She's attached, she's hanging dozens of feet up and she can't get down.

I would throw a knife or my khopesh, but logically, I can't. If I do, I'll just annoy the drakon. If I kill him, his body would fall from the skies, and he would crush Trixie under him.

Unless...

A plan forms in my head.

"Trixie, cut the knot!" I shout as loudly as I dare.

"What!" she hollers back. "Are you crazy!"

I run up. "It's a ten-metre drop. You're wearing armour, Trixie, you'll survive!"

Trixie looks doubtfully at me, and even from a distance away, I hear the slick movement as the rope supporting her snaps in two, and she plummets down...

Down...

Down.