I Don't Seem So Bright in a Well-Lit Room

Chapter Twenty-Four

Sometimes the tiny little tidbits of joy found buried under humongous banks of shit could feel so huge, even in comparison to their monumental shit backdrop. 

Aye was still missing. Those in charge of everything were still against them. The battle scars (both physical and mental) were starting to pile up on each other and criss-cross like a 3D road map of purgatory, and an egg containing a deadly embryo was rolling about all over the cargo bay floor like a pin-dangling cute-grenade. 

Yet here they were, killers and fools...arms wrapped around a tree. Laughing. Crying tears of joy. Laughing more. (Disbelief!)

There would be much time to sink back into the shit bank later. For now, they were proving that some reunions were better than winning lotteries. 

Clory was weak and husky, but she was happy. She would not be able to part with Potto for the time being. The sap that she had used to heal him, that harmlessly contaminated his ridiculous blood and enabled her to draw him to her through space like a magnet, needed to be shared for a while. Like a pre-mall Earth car battery, she just needed the boost and to run for a bit to start charging herself up. 

Two small jumper-cable branches pierced his skin, but he did not complain. He was too wrapped up in the moment of laughing tears, quietly joy-weeping to himself inside his odorous protective space shell. 

Besides, he was not a complainer, grumbler or whiner. These things rarely occurred to him.

Teeg put her forehead against her leafy sister, who was looking a bit too "late fall/early winter" for her liking, and told her "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. A million times, thank you my sister. I should have said it so many times before. Thank you, thank you."

Gekko climbed up into her branchy hair, which jutted up like a dry, woody fountain. She continued her hugging and kind-of-terrifying-to-an-outsider yeee-like silent laughing. She offered many tiny tender kisses. 

"I...I...I..." She was too overwhelmed to speak, even through her thoughts.

"I know, my love," Clory reassured silently. "Keep kissing, though. I like it. Never stop kissing, okay?"

"How can we help you, Clory?" Teeg transmitted.

"Give me time. Give me oxygen and food. Give me the Quarol for a short spell. His blood still contains my healing sap. That is how I was able to draw him to me. I'm afraid it was horribly painful for him, but we were both lucky to find one another," Clory thought.

Potto smiled widely, though no one could see him through his sick-caked helmet. 

"We should probably remove the space suit," Clover piped up from the back of the room. No one had noticed her there, and for good reason. It wasn't she that had gone missing, much to Teeg's dismay. She didn't know Clory well, but she cried nonetheless because that's who Clover was.

"If we must," Teeg shrugged with a sly smile, only half-joking. It's not that she disliked the oddball Quarol, but she didn't want him ruining the mood with senseless yammering, which he was more than likely to do. He may not have been a grumbler, but he definitely was a senseless yammerer.

"The Quarol..." Clory continued telepathically. "We have a bond. I couldn't get past his block, but I could see faint images on the other side, and I know where it came from. I think with the Oian's help we could break through." 

Just then the egg rolled over and knocked Clover in the ankle. She picked it up to examine it.

"Oh, n-n-n-n-n-n-n-no-no-no-no-nooooo, hell no," Teeg shouted as if her words were fired from a rapid-fire machine gun that shot no's instead of bullets. "Put that down. That's going back out into space."