The first thing Terry noticed the next morning was that Thunder wasn’t where he’d parked him. He had a moment of panic that the scooter had been stolen, but Elton’s nearly new Vespa was parked in the next space and it was still there. He finally spotted the yellow scooter on the opposite side of the parking lot and facing the highway.
“D?” he asked, “Did you move Thunder this morning?”
Delores was already awake and eating with Elton by the fire pit. She looked up when he called.
“No. I was going to ask you why you moved him last night.”
Terry walked over, still staring at the scooter. He looked down and found a plate with eggs and sausage waiting on him. He picked it up and sat, mumbling a thank you. He ate distractedly, not taking his eyes off of Thunder with his shield strapped to the front. Something was going on here. Delores pulled him from his thoughts.
“Didn’t you say he had some kind of enchantment on him?” she said between bites.
“It.” Said Elton. “It’s not a he. It’s a scooter, not a puppy.”
Delores grinned and shouted toward the parking lot.
“Don’t listen to him, Thunder! We all know you’re a very good boy!” She laughed.
It moved. Terry wouldn’t have seen it if he hadn’t been watching for something, anything, to happen. The movement was so small, just a slight turning of the steering column. Just enough to where the headlight could be seen. Or see them?
“It does have an enchantment.” Terry said, without taking his eyes off it.
“Who did the work?” she asked.
“Dottie said it was my friend George. He tinkers.”
“Is he a mage?” she said, turning to see why Terry was staring so hard. Terry laughed at the question.
“Not even close. I think he may be the least magical person I know.”
Delores turned back to the group and seemed to think for a while. Terry, finally satisfied that Thunder wasn’t going to start dancing, turned his attention back to her.
“I’m no enchanter,” she said, “but if I ever meet this George, maybe I can take a look at the spell he used. Maybe it was a mis-cast. Or the wrong type of spell.”
Terry had become distracted thinking Delores was actually very enchanting, when he suddenly realized she had continued talking after that. He had to concentrate to remember what she’d been saying and snapped back to now.
“Oh!” he said, “That’d be fine. Thank you.”
He suddenly wanted her to meet his only friends. Only OTHER friends, he corrected. That fact made him smile.
With nothing pressing on their agenda after Natchez, they decided to use the shower facilities at the rest area before hitting the road. They were, of course, divided by gender which meant Terry and Elton had their side to themselves. Terry spent most of the time letting the hot water work the frustration he was feeling out. He was finally starting to relax when Elton’s voice rang out from the stall next door.
“So. . . . You guys a thing or what?”
Terry started and slipped. He fell against the wall and managed to catch himself with a hand around the shower head before he could actually hit the ground.
“No!” He yelled. “She made it very clear when we met that this was ONLY a business arrangement.”
He nodded to himself. Then he remember what the important part was supposed to be.
“Besides, you know the Order’s stance on, uh, dalliances with mages.”
Elton replied after humming a weird little shower song.
“Damned shame. When I found out you two had only known each other a few hours before meeting me I was shocked. I thought you’d been together for weeks.”
Terry stewed in the steam.
“And who cares about the vows, anyway?” Elton said.
Terry didn’t think he could be more shocked by a statement, but Elton was proving him wrong this morning.
“ME!” he yelped in much too high a pitch. “You ignore your vows and you know what you get? People like Lawless. That’s what you get.”
“Terry,” Elton said calmly, “Lawless was breaking his vows to hurt people. Who do you think you’d be hurting?”
Terry felt anger bubbling up in him. He didn’t want to get angry with Elton. He’d started to really like the guy, but this was a bit much.
“This is what I am, Elton. It’s who I am. I AM my vows. Now just leave it be.”
For a moment Terry thought he had gotten his point across.
“I mean,” Elton started up again, “If you don’t like her that’s different.”
“Elton,” Terry said in a calm, firm, and deep voice, “Stop. Now.”
There was silence for a couple of minutes from the bard. Then finally he spoke quietly.
“Sorry. Too far. Won’t happen again.”
Terry buried his face in his hands. He was just talking about Lawless and then started acting like him. That was as close to a threat as Terry had ever come and he felt disgusted with himself. He turned the water off and grabbed his towel.
“It’s ok. It’s just, well, not a subject I’m comfortable with. Let’s leave it at that.”
With that, Terry left the shower to get dressed.
Delores was sitting on a bench outside between the two shower entrances when he walked out. He walked past her to the edge of the sidewalk and looked out at the late morning. He shoved his hands in his coat pockets and specifically did not look at her.
“You ok?” she asked from behind him.
Terry sighed. He’d been sighing a lot lately. More than he ever had back home. There was so much more to deal with in the wide world.
“Just Elton trying to make jokes to be friendly. He went too far. It’ll be fine. I’ll be fine.”
“What about?”
“Nothing important.” Terry said, cringing inside from the lie. He didn’t think he’d ever be comfortable doing that, or be very good at it for that matter.
Before Delores could say anything behind him, there was a sudden pulse that seemed to shoot through the air and nearly pulled Terry off his feet. He heard a thud and turned to see Delores on the concrete. She’d been in the process of standing up when it hit. He rushed to her side and helped her up.
“Are you ok? What was that?” he said.
Delores looked around nervously. She still hadn’t let go of his arm after standing.
“It felt like the whole mana web got pulled to the west. I’ve never heard of anything like that.”
Elton walked out of the shower then and took them both in.
“What?”
They turned to him.
“Didn’t you feel that?” Terry asked.
“No, what?”
Terry looked at Delores in confusion but she was thinking.
“I think,” she began, “I think we need to go back the way we came.”
The drive back west was tense. The pulling sensation hit twice more which actually helped them pinpoint the location, and of course it was toward Natchez. Delores scrolled on her phone behind Terry checking for local news and after a moment he heard her shout.
“HOLY SHIT.”
“What?” he shouted over his shoulder. Her other arm came around his chest with her phone and when he glanced down, there was video of a giant something rising from a field of kudzu. It was MADE of kudzu. Terry had to stop staring and concentrate on the road but he was shaken.
“Holy what you said! I’ve dreamed this!” He said.
“What?!” Delores yelped as she pulled her phone back to stow it. “You had a prophetic dream?”
“Kinda?” Terry suddenly wished he’d said nothing. “I had a dream warning me of something coming and it was from a giant head in kudzu. Weird?”
“Very” was all Delores said to that. “Anyway, the video says it’s coming out of The Devil’s Punchbowl east of town.”
Terry nodded and managed to coax a bit more speed out of Thunder.
Delores was nervous as they pulled up in the parking lot. Rising over the trees was a massive humanoid shape of kudzu and it’s movements looked for all the world like it was taking deep breaths. Occasionally she felt the mana web pulse toward it and the fact that it wasn’t as intense concerned her. Terry stared at the thing as they all dismounted. She watched the Errant step forward, but he quickly turned and addressed the scooter.
“Don’t move, you understand me? Don’t go ANYWHERE.”
Delores thought he was trying to provide some levity but he looked deadly serious. Terry took off toward the beast with her and Elton following close behind. She looked at the bard and he looked terrified. He also had his phone out and had started recording all this.
They emerged from the trees to a sea of Kudzu with a massive man shape coming out of it. Terry stood there, stunned.
“Ever seen anything like this before?” she asked him.
He just slowly shook his head. "Just in my dream."
“Do you have a plan?” Elton asked.
Terry smiled and turned to him.
“I never have a plan.”
Terry pulled that sword of his from the inside of his coat and before she could ask questions, he’d leaped.
“What the shit?!” Elton yelled. He’d seen Terry perform a couple of feats of strength, but this was different and almost ridiculous.
The Errant sailed through the air. He must have been twenty five feet up, high enough that he could nearly reach the thing’s arm. She stared in wonder. The sword glowed and stretched like in Biloxi, and completely severed the thing’s left arm. He landed behind it and, taking two short jumps to reposition, repeated the process back toward them, severing the right arm. As he landed in front of them, they heard what sounded like wind wailing from the Kudzu beast’s head.
Terry turned to see how effective he had been but even as the arms became dead plants on the ground, two new ones were almost completely formed. Delores saw Elton take a step back from the Errant. Terry turned to her.
“Well, Plan A didn’t work. Any ideas?”
Delores was not a battle mage. She knew basic attack spells, quite a few defensive spells, and almost every form of counter-spell known to man, so she thought. She had an idea, though, and decided to try it anyway.
“Give me just a second.” She told Terry.
She began the short chant for a fireball. She needed a big one so she drew enough mana to fill her through her wrist components. She was shocked when she found she could hold more mana than she normally could. She’d have to worry about that later. She focused on what she held inside and attuned it to flame. She felt the heat and light of fire burning within her and then she threw both hands forward.
Delores was NOT prepared for the size of the fireball that burst from her hands and pushed her backward. The sizzling ball roared forward and hit the beast in its chest and, surprisingly, burned deeply into it. It bellowed again, wind in a forest. For a moment she saw a hollow in its center and, inside, something copper bound in vines. The kudzu immediately grew over the hole though. She also saw the thing raise its arm and swing it toward their group.
“SCATTER!” Terry shouted, grabbing Delores by the waist and leaping to the right by yards. The hand followed them instead of Elton and crashed somewhere behind them. Terry set her gently down. He looked tired already.
“Terry!” she said, grabbing his shoulders, “There’s a heart in there. If you can get the chest down to a reasonable level I might be able to burn my way into-“
She was cut short by a new pulling sensation. Something was yanked inside her. It was the most uncomfortable feeling she’d ever felt and when it passed she and Terry where leaning against each other, panting. This wasn’t mana being pulled. It was a part of her.
“I-I think I’m going to throw up.” Was all she said for a moment. Terry took her shoulders and straightened her up. He looked pale and sick himself, but he held her eyes trying to project confidence.
“Later. That wasn't just directed at us. It hit Elton too. It's going to do that to everyone it gets near. What were you saying?”
She looked and wished she hadn’t. The bard was on his knees emptying his stomach between sobs, all the while still trying to keep them in frame with his phone.
“We need to get to the center. It has a metal heart. Think like a video game final boss.”
Terry stared blankly.
“Just cut it’s legs off!” She yelled in desperation. At that he nodded and made an awkward run toward it through the kudzu littering the ground. She tried to psyche herself up to run at the thing as she drew in enough mana to hopefully blowtorch through the chest, but she was so frightened she wanted to run away. This wasn’t what she thought this would be like. This was a nightmare. She thought she could feel Death standing behind her, chuckling.
She watched as Terry ran between the thing’s legs, jumped straight into the air, and spun, blade extending and slashing both legs away. Before they could reattach, they blew sideways and out from under the thing. Terry rolled toward her on the ground, stood, and ran as the trunk of the body crashed down and fell on what she assumed was it’s back. She swallowed and started running.
She saw legs start trying to form, connecting the beast to the ground. Terry met her halfway, grabbed her around the waist and jumped, carrying them the distance to it’s chest. She boggled as they soared through the air at a tremendous speed and then landed lightly on the the thing's chest. Terry was pouring sweat. She was shaking. This wasn’t how she’d pictured adventures. Not at all.
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