Alex Reynard
The Library
Alex Reynard's Online Books
Some realms within Phobiopolis are eternal night. Residents, in time, develop a feel for which is 'day' night and which is deep night. Zinc kicked open the hatch and Junella closed her eyes to draw in a long, soothing, cleansing, lovely lungful of outside air. She let it out in a sigh. No more aroma of body parts. Just rolling dunes as far as the nose could smell. There were also the increased patrols of constructs, the much-smaller moon, and the shifting tides of the dark sky's living constellations. Round about midnight, she guessed.
There was also, not forty feet away, five assholes with shovels and painlaunchers digging a living grave for a certain male mouse.
"Hey!! You!!" one of them articulated intelligently.
The skunk and mutt looked at one another.
Zinc raised his wrenches and made a crablike 'pinching off necks' gesture.
Junella shook her head. "Nah. You go find the car. Start 'er up." She scowled towards the gravediggers. "I think a massively unfair fight would suit my mood beautifully right about now." She tossed Sulilong roughly back to Zinc, not caring if he caught him. She filled her hands with weaponry and headed towards the henchmen.
Zinc hopped down to the sand as well, mindful that the castle was still turtling along on its treads. He idly wondered if it had a driver or it was just wired up to doodle aimlessly. He hadn't exited via the same hatch they'd entered by, but it was close enough. He caught a flash of chrome not far off and felt his heart swell with love. He headed off, not worried about Junella. When she'd said 'unfair', it had not meant towards herself.
The dead ground felt pleasant beneath her bare feet, mostly because it was dry. She absorbed the tableau in front of her while wiping scarlet off her soles. Three minions were nipple-deep in a trench, holding shovels and looking befuddled. Painlaunchers holstered. Two more guys had their weapons primed and glowing, standing outside the hole, probably keeping watch for constructs. The mouse was perched on the ground beside the dirt pile, bound, gagged, and begging for her help with his red-tinged eyes.
The two guys with painlaunchers had them aimed squarely at Junella. "Hey!!" the lynx repeated. "What the hell happened in there? We heard a lot of screaming, but no one came out and told us to stop!"
Junella sheathed her sword to respond, but kept her finger tight on the revolver's trigger. "My bobble-headed friend and I killed your entire crew, including the bunny with no sword, and now we're kidnapping your boss. How's that sound?"
The lynx was struck dumb for a second. Then he aimed his painlauncher between her eyes and repeated his favorite word. "Hey!!"
Junella's expression did not change. Her stride did not break.
BLAM
BLAM
BLAM
BLAM
BLAM
Three lung shots and two gut shots. Four seconds total. All five men hit the dirt, rolling around and screaming. Junella let a smirk flow over her muzzle. It was nice to win a fight with barely more effort than it took to raise her arm.
The mouse looked up at his guardian angel. He wriggled his ropes, as if she needed to be told he wanted to be freed.
"Yeah, yeah. Just a second."
She'd barely begun to shred at the knots when a gurgling shout came from behind her.
"THERE'S ONE!!"
She whirled around. It turned out that the sound of five gunshots, followed by five ongoing wails of agony, are quite good at drawing the attention of someone who is hunting to find you. Three someones, actually. And they took the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place trophies for the ugliest sonsofbitches she'd seen all night.
~~*-*-*~~
We briefly rewind. No more than a minute.
Nollacero is still lying prone in the carpeted hallway with a shattered spine. He has been trying to meditate, to temper the unbearable frustration, without much success. Now he hears footsteps running towards him. Finally!
"Kill me!! Whoever you are, get over here and kill me! My back is broken!"
The figure comes into view. A fat capybara with sweat on his brow. He sees the hare's predicament and slows a bit, but doesn't stop. "I... I can't!"
Nollacero's eyes bulge. "What!? Why!?"
"They got the boss!" he yells back, quaking from nervousness. "There's gonna be hell to pay if we don't get him back! All I can think of is to let the muties loose!"
"NO!" the hare orders. "I can handle it! I can make everything right! Get over here and kill me!!"
The capybara stutters, runs in place, and makes his decision based purely on whose wrath he fears more. He continues down the hall to the holding pen. "I'm sorry!!"
Nollacero shakes his head violently back and forth. "NO! GET BACK HERE! KILL ME! KILL ME!!!"
~~*-*-*~~
The original drybleed three. The trio that Eagsyne had watched trying to punch their way through the wall. They'd shrunk a bit shorter than his description, but they all still crested ten feet tall. A jaguar, a yak, and a chameleon. Purple, brown, and green. They had gangly scarecrow limbs. Grotesque, asymmetrical bodies. Elongated heads like Mardi Gras costumes brought to life. And more pimples and boils than you could squeeze in a week.
"GET HER!!!" the jaguar roared. He took off in a cumbersome but terrifyingly fast gait, straight at Junella. His gruesome companions charged alongside him.
Junella felt her heartbeat pounding in her ears, but reminded herself that she'd expected this. She knew from the start that these three were bound to show up. And from their bleary, squinting eyes, maybe she'd woken them from a nap. Awww.
She turned back to the captive mouse and, forgoing subtlety, whipped out her cutlass and slashed through his ropes in a single motion. It drew a bit of blood but worked like a charm.
The mouse jumped to his feet and pulled down his gag. Grabbing Junella's paw, he pumped it up and down vigorously. "Thank you! Oh my god, they were going to bury me!! You have no idea how grateful I am!"
She shoved him away. "Don't stand there thanking me, stupid! Start running!!"
From his seated position, he hadn't seen what was chasing her. He sure did now. Squealing in terror, he took off as fast as a marathon runner, in whatever direction was farthest away.
She watched him kick up dust and disappear into the night. He'd be eaten by constructs within five minutes, she knew. Probably repeatedly. But still, any chance at of freedom was better than suffering under the weight of a tyrant's thumb. She wasn't standing still either. She detoured around the dirt pile and pointed herself in the direction she'd last seen Zinc.
Behind her, colossal malformed feet drove twisted monsters towards her. Claws like sickles. Teeth like knives.
Then came the sound of an engine exploding to life.
Twin plumes of plasma exhaust scoured the darkness, followed by the blinding flash of headlights.
The drybleed goons all turned to look. They raised their hands against the glare, and a moment later, were all sliced to ribbons by a sun-powered rolling scimitar.
Zinc cocked back his cartoonishly huge head and clamped his paw on the shift rod. "YEEEEE-HAWWWW!!! GET OUTTA MY WAY, JERKS! I'M BIG DADDY ROTH!!!"
'If this ain't the coolest moment of my life, I can't remember it,' he thought.
Junella didn't have much farther to run before the Killcanoe pulled up beside her. Zinc grinned like a kid on Christmas. "Beep beep! Cab service! Need a ride, toots?"
"That would be excellent," she sang. Hooking an arm over the side, she vaulted into the awaiting leather seat. She shivered in bliss at how good it felt to sit down and rest. "Coryza, please. And mash that gas pedal!"
He 'hmmph'ed. "As if you hadda tell me."
The Killcanoe blasted a roar of pure joy as Zinc sent her into the red. Nothing could make a car happier than a flat, unbroken stretch of desert to chase her top speed in. The shocks made the chassis feel like a magic carpet ride. The tires spun like tornadoes. The core at their feet purred with life and radiated heat. The wind pushed their ears flat and velocity churned their stomachs.
Junella swiveled her seat around to keep an eye on the drybleed trio. While they weren't all mutating into smaller, even-uglier versions like Zinc had, they sure weren't staying down either. Clearly pissed off, they were hopping around on their remaining limbs, snatching up parts and trying to figure out whose was whose to slap 'em back on. The yak was first to puzzle himself back together. He took off running immediately.
She reached back and tapped Zinc's shoulder. "Here they come again. Of course it's never easy."
The canine's head was slowly shrinking back to normal, as he'd already lived his perfect moment of hot rod heaven. A fine stream of red dust trailed out of his ears. "Do I look worried? This is just like you planned. And by the way, I owe you a beer. I actually thought we'd gotten lucky and they wouldn't show up at all."
"If they don't chew our brains out, I'll take you up on that."
Zinc checked the rear view mirror. A stampede of three was thundering towards them, faster than he would've thought possible. Even with his own exposure to the nearly-limitless nightmare energy of the drybleed, their speed was surprising. 'Guess they've had more practice.' He carefully measured the shifter and accelerator. The trick now was to stay far enough ahead to avoid getting caught, but not so fast they'd lose their pursuers. A surprise was waiting at the end of the line.
The Killcanoe settled into a groove. Exactly the right speed, not an MPH more or less. Behind them, the slavering stooges shook their twisted fists and cried out all manner of blood-curdling threats. Zinc turned on the radio. With a little bit of tuning, he found a surf rock station. 'The gods must be smiling on me tonight,' he thought. He was sure of it a moment later when he drove through a herd of pigthings, shearing them all into cutlets without getting even a splotch on the windshield. He howled at the moon and kissed the dashboard.
Junella noticed Zinc's head was only slightly balloonish now. "Hey. Whydja get smaller again when those three back there are still jeepers creepers?"
"Wanted to," he tossed back with a shrug. "You oughtta know: any transformation you say yes to, you can shake off just as easy. I let the stuff in. We had some fun. We parted amicably."
She nodded and gave him a 'that makes sense' sound, then ducked so she wouldn't get smacked with any remains from the bonecuddy the car had just cleaved. "By the way, where's Sulilong?"
He pointed a wrench behind him. "See that bag at your feet?"
She hadn't, actually. It was a burlap lump wedged way down into the storage space. She gave it a little kick and heard a muffled tirade.
"I used to catch pigeons in it. Guy's gotta eat, right? Now it's filled to the brim with one grade-A dipshit. Horns ripped off and a muzzle fulla duct tape."
"Oooch," she hissed, impressed. "He give you trouble?"
A glint of uncharacteristic sadism shone in his eyes. "Nope. Just felt like it."
Junella cackled.
It was a long drive back to Coryza. For Zinc, the hardest part of the journey was exercising restraint on the gas pedal. It would've felt velvet 'n cream to go all out and bury the speedometer needle. But they had to keep their enemies visible in the side mirrors. Whenever the pack showed signs of exhaustion, Zinc faked engine troubles or diverted course to annihilate more nightmares. He had to be careful not to let them figure out they were being led.
Junella didn't have much to do in the backseat besides occasionally missing a shot at their pursuers, or target practice on constructs. She spotted a weird-looking one up ahead, then realized with a bit of astonishment that it wasn't a construct at all. "Zinc! Pull up alongside that little pink dot!"
His eyes bulged. "Is that who I think it is!?"
If the hot pink leotard hadn't given it away, the catcher's mitt antlers sure did. Jaziezal was hot-footing it across the wasteland with nothing but a travel valise and a construct-repellent soundbox. It was astonishing he'd made it this far without becoming a midnight snack. He heard the Killcanoe coming and shrieked out a high-pitched gobble. The headlights stretched his shadow across the sand.
Zinc angled the car alongside the fleeing moose just as smooth as you please, and Junella leaned way out of her seat to snag his collar.
She dragged him close. Kissing distance. "Hi."
Jaziezal's scream of panic nearly exploded her head.
Junella kindly retrieved his belongings before they fell to the sand and disappeared. Then she swung him up onto the back-end hood and let him cling on. Half the scrawny weirdo's weight was his antlers. She sat back down and pinned him in place with her eyes.
He stared back, trembling.
"You've had a rough night," she sang soothingly. "Don't ask me how I know. All I can say is, I'm impressed you managed to get your head symmetrical again."
His frozen dread became intrigued puzzlement.
"You were working for my target. So right now, I don't know whose side you're on. I'd like to be nice and offer my hand in peace, but I need some assurance first." She leaned slightly closer. "What would you say if I told you I had your boss' head in a burlap sack right at my feet?"
He cocked his head, mouth agape and eyes bulging. "B-bullshit?" he squeaked.
She nodded. An understandable reaction. She reached between her legs, held up the bag, and peeled it back just enough for the qilin's golden eyes to drill into the moose's.
"JESUS CHRIST, MANG!!" Jaziezal squealed.
Junella nodded. Sulilong struggled quite a bit, but she managed to get him secured again. She stomped him deep under the hood. Then raised an eyebrow to Jaziezal: "And how do you feel now?"
"Ho-lee fuckatitty city," he said.
"Exactly. So lemme put it to you simply. I am acting on direct orders from the deputy mayor of Coryza to annihilate Sulilong's operation. You were a crucial part of it. But you seem like a harmless l'il schmuck, so I'm offering you asylum."
He seemed receptive.
"Do you know what Lady Crynight will pay you to never brew up another bottle of that drybleed stuff ever again?"
Hopefully, with a quaver in his voice, he guessed, "P-p-pussy?"
She facepalmed. "Yeah, fine, probably."
The moose's hand shot out like an arrow. "O-KAY, boss!"
Junella shook on the deal, wondering if the little spaz had cooties.
Zinc reached back a wrench. "By the way! Name's Zinc. Sorry you gotta hug the hood. There's only two seats."
Jaziezal shook, then shrugged. "Beats running."
"And my compliments to the chef!" The mutt licked his lips. "If that was the last-ever batch of your concoction, I'm glad I'm the one who gulped it! More fun than Disneyworld!"
Jaziezal lit up at the appreciation for his work, then went cross-eyed trying to figure out how the canine had gotten his wrenches on it.
The Killcanoe continued to spew up twin trails of dust behind its churning wheels. Constructs were still getting bisected by its hood. The goons were still pursuing. The moon was still shining. "How much farther to Coryza?" Junella called out.
They had closed up their walls for the night. Normally that would be a traveler's worst nightmare, as it meant there was no safe haven until morning from the ravenous beasts of the wastes. But Zinc tried not to worry. Though the city's lights had been doused, he could still see a rectangular patch of darkness on the horizon with no stars inside it. "Just a hop, skip, and a jump," he reported.
"Good." Time to antagonize their antagonists.
The drybleed trio had never dropped their pace, but their rage had smoldered down to mere annoyance. They looked like they wanted to go back home and get back to bed more than they wanted to rip their prey limb from limb.
Junella aimed to change that. She pushed Jaziezal's head down and used one of his antlers as a handy tripod. (He moaned a bit, but allowed it once he realized what part of her anatomy he was close to.) Squinting down the barrel, the skunk lined up her shot and put a nick in the jaguar's ear.
The big cat flinched as if a bee had stung him. His nine-fingered hand shot to the side of his head and came back bloody. "You piece of shit!!"
She grinned. Shot number two shattered the yak's left hand.
He howled, snorted, and doubled his speed.
Shot number three blinded one of the chameleon's eyes. It didn't hurt his depth perception though, as he had a couple extra on that side already. "I'll peel your skin off!!" he shrieked.
"Gotta catch me first, boys!" Junella sang back with a flirty wave of her scarf.
Jaziezal meekly peeked up at her. "Was that w-wise?"
She patted him on the head. "Shut up and trust me." Swiveling around, she gave Zinc a rustle. "The hive has been poked. You ready to do your part?"
They were traveling at almost seventy miles per hour. Coryza was a starless black void looming ahead. Zinc shifted his grip to the middle of the steering bar and clamped his right wrench around the pinball piston. "Ready steady, cap'n. But, ah, I can't see any trace of what I'm aiming us at."
She gave the back of his neck a gentle massaging squeeze. "Mia said she would. That's good enough for me."
The mutt exhaled and tried to have the same amount of faith. "Awright then. Full speed ahead." He pushed down the gas pedal. Not too much. Just enough to make the already-maddened gargoyles behind them freak out and push themselves harder to keep up. It was vital to keep them focused on the car, not its path.
Soon Zinc could see the seams in Coryza's mighty wall, the rivets outlining each titanic panel. He scanned for the place where the goons had made their dent before. There. He was slightly off-course, and corrected. He was aiming for a very particular spot. 'The panel on the LEFT. The LEFT. The LEFT,' he chanted to himself. The whole night's adventure would go straight to hell in an eyeblink if he missed his mark.
He couldn't see what he was driving towards, but he knew where it would be. When Coryza's petals opened up, morning after morning for generations, they left a permanent imprint in the soil around the city. Each panel was shaped the way a child draws a house: a triangle atop a square. Zinc was aiming for the panel to the left of the dent. The spot where its indentation made a humongous arrow straight towards.
He yanked back on the pinball handle, dropping the car's suspension an inch above the ground. Their speed slowed considerably.
The drybleed goons saw this and rejoiced. Yowling in bloodthirsty glee, they surged forward.
Junella kept her eyes peeled and her aim steady. She couldn't hope to defeat them with just a cutlass and a revolver, but goddammit, she'd try if she had to.
Zinc held steady on the handle. Too late and they'd be fucked. Too soon and they'd be fucked. He had to hit this right smack dab in the Goldilocks zone.
Jaziezal screamed a lot.
The Killcanoe's headlights passed over a patch of ground where the color was ever so slightly wrong.
"NOW OR NEVER!" Zinc hollered. He released the piston.
The suspension uncoiled. High-powered springs punched the car four feet straight off the ground.
On liftoff, Junella's heart skipped a beat. It was a brief but intense feeling of liberation. Like maybe they'd just keep going and drift off into space, leaving this whole crumbling, rabid world behind.
The drybleed trio's mouths fell agape. They saw the car they were chasing put on a burst of magic and learn to fly. And because they were all looking up, none of them were looking down.
Gravity punched the yak and the jaguar in the stomach as their feet went from solid dirt to a wide canvas blanket with a bit of soil sprinkled on top, stretched taut over a 10' by 14' hole.
The tiger pit was the oldest trick in the book. But sometimes tricks get old because they work.
The Killcanoe slammed back down on the opposite side with plenty of room to spare. Zinc damn near drove the handbrake through the floor. They skidded into a 180° spin. This put them at the perfect angle to catch a fleeting glimpse of the yak and jaguar flailing helplessly in empty air for an instant before dropping out of sight.
Two screams, two thuds. But there should have been three.
On pure luck alone, the chameleon had managed to stop himself right at the edge of the pit. He was gibbering mindlessly as he desperately pinwheeled his arms, trying to keep himself from going over.
A withered but vengeful voice rang out from high above, "Not a second time, peckerhead!"
A rifle bullet exploded the dirt directly beneath the chameleon's feet. Down he went, like a sack of stones.
Another scream, another thud.
Junella craned her neck to look up, way up, at the tiny dot of a guardsman's balcony high on the wall above.
An owl's wing waved down at her.
She smiled.
Panting, jittering, and staring, Zinc hopped out of the car. His eyes were glued to the huge rectangular divot Coryza's citizens had managed to dig and conceal in the brief span of his absence. An amazing achievement for such a short time. (He wondered where they'd put all the dirt. Maybe just piled up in the street?) Now all three of their last remaining problems were far at the bottom of it, knocked out cold. He jumped up and punched the air. "YESSS!!! Holy sweet chrome-plated Jesus, we did it! We fuckin' did it, you guys!!"
Junella wasn't out of the car two seconds before a pair of wrenches picked her up and spun her around in a hug. She wobbled for a second afterwards, not sure if she'd been hit by a truck.
Zinc danced over to Jaziezal, kissed the moose on the snoot, and crowbarred him off the hood to join in a jig. Jaziezal screamed a lot.
Junella walked over to the edge of the pit and peeked in. Whatever was down there, it was too dark to see. She regarded the width of it and whistled. She couldn't believe the Killcanoe had jumped it so easily. So much of tonight had come down to chance and luck. But it was over, she told herself. She could finally shut off the alarm bells in her heart. It was over.
She padded back to where Zinc was still giving Jaziezal a nervous breakdown through overwhelming good cheer. She chucked the mutt's left wrench. "Simmer down. No partying yet. Chores ain't finished."
He blinked and came to his senses. "Oh, right." He skimmed the surroundings and could already spot quite a few ravenous nightmares turning in the darkness towards them. "You already thunk up a way for us to not end up being dessert, I assume?"
"I forgot to tell you?" She gave him a 'watch this' smirk. The skunk held out her hand, showing it empty. Then she tucked it behind her thigh and returned it holding a coil of As-Much-Rope-As-You-Need. "Ta-da."
Zinc and Jaziezal both clapped.
Junella started unspooling it. She'd had it for years and it really did seem as infinite as the box had promised. She tossed the end to Zinc. "Here. Pop off one of your wrenches and tie it on. You ever been a grappling hook before?"
He glanced up high at the guardsman's balcony. "Not yet, but it shouldn't be too hard. Gimme a couple seconds first, mammacita." He jumped back in the car and started her up.
Junella glanced at the ring of nightmare constructs that were beginning to pick up their pace towards them. "How many seconds?"
"Enough to park her someplace where she won't get pancaked in the morning," he replied sensibly.
"Fair enough. Good thinking." She bade him drive off and went back to Jaziezal, who was looking a bit petrified. She showed off her revolver. "Nothings gettin' close to us, don't worry."
He nodded several times and clutched her arm, grateful for the reassurance. "I l-like p-pizza, boss."
She blinked at the non sequitur. "Sure."
Zinc took a little longer to park than she would have liked, ensuring the car was angled just so. He gave it a hug and murmured babytalk to it for a bit, before jogging back to rejoin the others. To Junella's approval, the mutt wasted no time in slipping off a wrench and getting to work with the rope. Plus she spotted the burlap sack, tied shut and hanging off his belt. "Help him," she ordered Jaziezal, then took a defending position in front, gun raised and ready.
As it turned out, she didn't actually have to shoot anything. Sometimes constructs charged right in with tooth and claw, other times they circled around to season their meals with fear. Or maybe the Killcanoe spooked them, who knew? She didn't mind fewer problems, whatever the reason. In less than a minute, she heard the swish and clang of Zinc's flying wrench hitting its mark.
He tested the grip. Couldn't ask for better. "You guys climb up first, then reel me in?"
Junella jumped onto his shoulders. "Nope. It's As-Much-Rope-As-You-Need. So need less of it." She glanced behind her. "And it couldn't hurt to hurry."
Zinc looked up at the rope and wanted it to be shorter. And it was. His paws were now danging a few inches off the ground "Neat." He reached out with his other wrench and scooped Jaziezal closer. "Over here, hatrack. We're ascending to the heavens." The moose gibbered and sweated but didn't struggle.
And so, with ample time to spare, our heroes rose up from the blighted soil towards the balcony and safety. Zinc didn't have to do anything but ask and the rope obeyed, smooth as an elevator. He looked back down at the pit behind them. A brief worry shivered through. Was it deep enough? The gruesome threesome were pretty tall. They might get the idea to stand on each other's shoulders and climb out. But it turned out there was nothing to fear after all. The nightmares that had been scenting around for him and Junella smelled something new to eat. Zinc watched herds of them converge around the pit and dive in, claws bared. Muffled by the wind, sounds of chewing and terror floated up to his ears.
Junella guessed what he was thinking. "They ain't going nowhere. They're occupied for the evening."
"Whaddaya think'll happen to 'em? I mean, eventually?"
She returned a cold little smile. "You can always count on Coryza's community spirit. I imagine tomorrow morning they'll all come out with their shovels and fill in the hole. And that will be that."
Zinc winced. Grim, but fitting.
As they were getting closer to the hole in the wall, a beaked head leaned over the edge. "Yah. Good work tonight, you down dere."
Zinc gave a nod. "Eagsyne! Fancy meeting you here."
"As if I'd be anywhere else?" He squinted gravely at the trio getting devoured in the pit below. "Lookin' back, I felt kinda like a coward for not doin' more to stop dem shitlickers the night before. Glad you led 'em here. Gave me a shot at redemption, eh?" He rattled his rifle: pun definitely intended.
Seeing that Jaziezal was definitely eager to get off this ride, Junella gave the moose a hand climbing up to safety. He mumbled various stuttering sounds of gratitude.
Eagsyne looked up and down at this total stranger that had just invaded his perch. "Who's this clown?"
"Sulilong's chemist," Junella replied, leaning on the rail. "We liberated 'im. And that reminds me; there's a hell of a lot of people buried out there in the wasteland. You should request a team head out with bone detectors."
He nodded. A sensible suggestion. "Yah."
"And maybe a few more to poke around the palace. I don't think you'll find a lot of resistance there, but I'm sure we left behind some prisoners."
He arched a feathery eyebrow. "You didn't take the time to let 'em loose?"
She winced, feeling acutely selfish.
Eagsyne patted her arm. "Well, we can't expect everything from ya."
She nodded.
"To be fair," Zinc interjected, "we were busy stealin' this." He tossed over the burlap bag.
Eagsyne caught it, but the weight made the old owl stumble back. "Heavy as hell!! Whatcha got innit?"
Zinc just smiled.
Eagsyne poked his head in.
Two golden eyes filled with all the hatred of Satan blazed back at him.
The owl pulled the sack shut quick. "Well fuck my grandparents!"
Jaziezal nodded that he'd had a similar reaction.
"Actually..." Junella got an idea. "Hey, moose."
He pointed at himself. "Me?"
"I'm remanding that coconut into your custody for the night. Keep an eye on him."
Jaziezal looked utterly gobsmacked to be given such a responsibility. "What'll I do with him!?"
"Eagsyne, doesn't the guardhouse have a basketball hoop somewhere?" Junella responded blithely.
A dark chuckle from the owl. "I believe we do."
It took a couple of seconds for the idea to penetrate Jaziezal's cranium, but once it did, maniacal glee spread across his face. "YAISSS, boss!!"
The bag began to scream, muffled by the duct tape.
Zinc cocked an eyebrow at Junella. "I'd kinda been hoping for some playtime with our new chum."
A pat on the head. "We've got elsewhere to be. Now getcher butt over the rail and get ready to throw your wrench again."
"We're not going inside!?" he shouted, bewildered.
She smiled serenely. "Just trust me for a moment, okay?"
~~*-*-*~~