"Maybe it's just because I'm new to this country… but we all see the giant multi-coloured fortress, right?" Dianbo pointed ahead, where a giant fortress stood erect. From within came muffled screeching.
"Yeah." Replied Sanjay. "I'd graffiti the walls but someone's clearly beaten me to it."
"And we all hear the screaming right?" Tian Yi seemed desperate for confirmation.
"And we all notice that there are tracks matching the ones we've been following that leads directly into… whatever that is?" Asked Shade, emotionlessly.
Dianbo drew his whip and took running start. He flew at the doors with one of his signature fly-kicks… it hurt his toes pretty bad.
For a while he stood hopping on one paw, unwilling to even hiss, lest it give away his location. Naturally his face was as red as a tomatoe by the time the others caught up to him.
"Not sure how things are done in China, but here it's polite to knock." Shade informed him, before raising a paw to do so himself.
"Wait! You can't take this opportunity away from me- it's something I've always wanted to try!"
"Sanjay, this isn't the time for one of your pranks." Tian Yi reminded sternly.
Putana hissed. "We shall recommence the ceremony upon my return." She turned to her sacrifice. "The Gods have given you a few more minutes to live. Use it to pray they accept you and devour your essence whole- rather than piece by piece." Her face still painted, her fingers still clutching the massive knife, the prophet made her way to the door. She nudged it open slightly and poked an annoyed head out to see who was making that infuriating noise!
To her surprise it was a food delivery guy… who looked strangely familiar.
"I have an order for Giant Rainbow Banyan Palace. Sixty-seven papadums with a side of yellow eggplant."
She frowned at the jackal, who was for some reason, grinning. Then she turned around to her slaves. "WHO ORDERED TAKE-OUT!? DO I LOOK UNDER-FED TO YOU? WE DON'T HAVE THE MONEY TO-" Somehow someone's rumbling stomach could be heard over the din. Putana glared at the unfortunate toad. "Alright, we're sacrificing him instead. Tie him to the altar, let the other one go." She whirled back round to face the grinning jackal, opened her mouth and promptly recieved a faceful of cream-coated dhokla. How Sanjay had fitted the entire dish into one of his many pockets was a mystery that would remain forever unsolved.
Dianbo facepalmed, and stood up from the bushes- taking Sanjay's extremely loud laughter as the signal that things were about to get serious... Gods this country made no sense.
"Haven't you done that before?" He asked dryly.
"Yeah, but not as a delivery guy. Makes it so much funnier you know." He said this as if it was common knowledge.
By now Putana had wiped away the dhokla, and was glaring furiously at the pair. She whirled round to face her toads, some of whom snickered at the sight of her. "On third thought-we shall sacrifice the desert dogs! I hear the Gods find them worthy of dessert!"
"Doesn't dessert come after a meal?" Asked the toad currently being tied to the altar.
"Desert. Dogs. Dessert. It's Sibilance you imbec-"
Dianbo booted- or rather, sandaled her away. Things were so much simpler his way.
The toad landed on her feet… and her face- but also her feet. Rising angrily she waved the sacrificial knife above her head.
"Such blatant disrespect to a messenger of the Gods in a holy Temple of the Gods-
"But there's no deity." Shade pointed out.
The toad looked at him quizzically. "There are three of you?"
The black jackal ignored her. "Generally temples have a deity."
"Not your Gods!" Snapped the toad priestess. "My ones! The real ones! The-"
"We don't have time for this I'm afraid." Dianbo interrupted her. "Where are the kids?"
"My Gods do not produce offspring-"
"He means the kids you stole." Sanjay said helpfully. "Stinkballs they may be, you didn't pay for them." The prankster's face shifted into the greatest scowl he could muster. It wasn't bad but he was a bit out of practice. He was better at other things.
"They weren't for sale." Dianbo, however was only good at two things. And one of them was scowling.
"You're such a buzzkill man! I was trying to do my best angry shopkeeper impression." Sanjay sighed, then went back to grinning. "Now give them back and there won't be any problems."
"Except the justice system." Added Shade. "Kidnapping is still a crime."
It took Putana a few moments to figure out what was being said. The kick, and the dhokla had slightly disoriented her. When she did eventually put two and two together though, she laughed. "Hahahahaha! You will never see them again! They will go to Ashtar together, and when they get there they'll be blown about like leaves on a breeze. And I will be rich!"
"Ashtar, eh?" Dianbo made a mental note on that name for later.
"Care to show us the way?" Came Shade's cool voice as casually, a pair of blades were removed from their sheaths.
"To do so would be to betray my Gods…" Suddenly she raised her cleaver high into the air. "Sacrifice them!" She screeched.
Many of her slaves were hesitant and gave each other unconvincing nods of encouragement.
"Sacrifice them or be sacrificed!" The toad screeched again- this brought about the desired result.
Armed with her entire collection of knives- sharp and blunt alike- the armada of slaves rushed forwards suddenly.
Only to step back when Sanjay unveiled his super-weapon... Which he promptly dropped. "Okay guys… just avoid the pile of itching powder."
"Sanjay… just…" Dianbo sighed, and dodged a particularly wild swing while doing so.
Shade effortlessly disarmed a pair of assailants, before swinging a blade at one's neck. Both Dianbo and Sanjay wrenched the amphibian out of range.
"Are you insane!?" They cried in unison. "That could have killed him."
Suddenly everyone seemed to stop fighting.
"Isn't… that… what we're trying to do?" Asked one toad.
"I am aware of that, yes. I aimed for his throat. It would have been a very quick and very clean death."
It unnerved Dianbo how far Shade could take his emotionlessness- even the act of killing provoked no reaction.
The toads seemed to step back all at once- visibly terrified.
"Well… can you knock them out instead?" Sanjay asked, also a bit freaked out. Good thing he'd never tried to pull a prank on that particular sibling…
Shade took… an unnaturally long time making that decision. In the end he gave the smallest of shrugs and stabbed his blades into the ground. Clearly he would have no more use of them.
Putana entered the fray, charging the black jackal with... Avengeance? And battle recommenced. The toads seemed more hesitant to go for Shade now- which meant Dianbo and Sanjay had far more opponents to deal with... Not like that was a problem or anything.
Sanjay demonstrated speed and agility (and bucketloads of good luck seeing as every projectile launched at him seemed to miss by a mile or get caught by a whip or black-furredpaw). Shade demonstrated complete absence from the battlefield. Many times Dianbo was sure his brother had been stabbed in the leg or arm or torso… but the jackal fought as if unharmed- so much so that all present were convinced that he was so. And Dianbo was just footwork. Roundhouse kicks, fly-kicks, violent kicks, gentle kicks, gentle-violent kicks. A lot of kicks.
Effective though they were at handling their opponents, they were all a bit less used to fighting alongside anyone. Or fighting in general, in Sanjay's case.
The aforementioned jackal slammed a jar of ink into a toad's face from point-blank. Seemingly from out of thin air, he whipped out a paint brush, and before the toad could recover he was the rather-less-than-proud owner of a pair of fierce mustachios. One toad, however, managed to close the gap. Vaulting upwards with a great bound of his long feet the amphibian slashed forwards.
Dianbo gasped as a wet stainless spread across the other jackal's vest. Then he frowned when he noticed that his brother was alright.
"My... My water balloon collection…" It was Sanjay's turn to slash and he did so, blinding the toad by covering it's eyes in ink. The paintbrush went back into his pockets and out came a banana peel, which he haphazardly tossed aside. The prankster's next weapon of choice… was the whoppee cushion- which he used to smack one toad across the face with. All paused in battle, expect Putana, who was currently trying and failing to choke Shade from behind, to stare at the ghastly place from which the unorthodox sound had ruptured forth. Sanjay pointed at the toad. "For the record, he did it." To add literal insult to… injury… Sanjay pinched his nose shut. "Peee-ew man, did you have beans for breakfast or something?"
Dianbo had to combat the urge to facepalm, he also had to combat the amphian that promptly pounced on him. Spinning round, he used his opponent's momentum (and inability to get a grip on his fur) against him, which launched him into another toad. The whip came down onto the webbed hand of someone reaching for a knife, and was followed by Dianbo's foot. A squat little toad; who had earlier today narrowly avoided becoming a sacrifice; shot forwards. It reminded him very much of one afternoon's training he'd had with Master Flying Rhino, one of his first ones.
"Today we're going to work on your speed. Since fists aren't an option for you, you're gonna have to learn to keep your distance in a fight. But you never know when something might just launch at you!" As he said this the rhino suddenly hurled a small round ball at his pupil. Dianbo was taken by surprise, and caught it… with his stomach. He landed on his rump, winded.
"I… wasn't… ready."
"Which is exactly why I threw it at you. Your opponents aren't always going to wait for a fancy battle stance. They wanna kill you!" Another ball came right at him, and caught the unprepared jackal- still recovering from the first blow- on the face. Dianbo lay on his back, dazed.
"Alright kid… maybe we should slow down a bit. Or I could hit less hard… yeah, that could work too. Hey kid, you still with me? Hello? Diiiianbo? Don't scare me now, I don't wanna call your mother."
This time he was ready, and the unfortunate toad was sent flying out the door.
Shade was doing well, even without his blades. A kick here, sucker-punch there. And all the while his face had yet to change even ever-so-slightly. Putana had him in a very weak chokehold, from which he could still, very easily, breathe. But her constant grunting was bothersome, especially when in such close proximity to his ears. Backing away slightly, he made his way over to a wall and proceeded to repeatedly crash into it. After the third impact the faux priestess fell to the ground- very unconscious.
He stepped forwards, and was knocked off his feet by a single toad whom Dianbo had kicked, who had then landed on a banana peel, who had then crashed into Shade's leg.
The black jackal was subsequently doggy-piled by about five toads. With some difficulty Shade pushed himself off the ground, and repeated the technique he'd used against the Prophet. It was very effective.
With Shade very effectively handling his share of combatants, it was up to Dianbo to make sure that no knives found themselves sticking out of Sanjay's back. It wasn't hard catching them with his whip and subsequently pinning opponents to the floor with them. But doing so while he had his own opponents to handle was more difficult.
One blade- shaped like a leaf, very nearly hit Sanjay- but was caught in the last second. Not by Dianbo's whip, but by the long fleshy tongue of an angry-looking toad, who then, with a twist, shot it at Dianbo. The jackal managed to deflect it with his glass paw, but in doing so was unable to kick away this toad. He met the ground hard, his whip landed out of reach and the toad was pressing a knife to his throat… a butter knife… which was blunt.
Dianbo took this opportunity to flip the amphibian over, and so they wrestled. The pair rolled along the ground until they came to a halt next to an abandoned pile of itching powder. Dianbo dug the claws of his good paw deep into the floorboards as he tried to keep his face out of reach of it. He had fur- things would be much worse for him if he had to constantly scratch at himself.
The toad knew this too, which was why it was taking the risk of coming there in the first place.
Suddenly Sanjay came crashing down from above- landing hard on Dianbo's back. But the slave had it worse, for in loosing balance over the sudden entrance of another jackal, he had firmly planted his buttocks into the itching powder. Despite the pair of pants he wore, he was soon screaming and rubbing at his backside.
"What do they put in that?" Dianbo asked incredulously.
"Oh just the standard stuff, dust, dried cobwebs, things that get your nose all sneezy, mainly rosehip I think. Though this particular brand likes to add chillies for extra spice."
"That… explains the screaming."
"Yeah."
Soon though, the screaming was muffled. Shade tossed the fallen toads in a pile, directly over the itching powder. It would be a nightmare when they woke up… but for now they lay there peacefully, long tongues dangling out in defeat.
Sanjay helped Dianbo to his feet, and even handed him his whip.
"Where's Tian Yi?" Asked Shade, noticing for the first time that their sister was not present, nor was she in the pile of unconscious toads.
Sanjay did a little spin to look around himself. "Well she's not here…"
"I was just getting this!" The she-jackal appeared suddenly from behind a cupboard, holding a map.
"What was it doing behind a cupboard?"
"Now's not the time Sanjay! Look." She unfurled it impatiently and pointed out the various points. "Aaand… Ashtar's not on it. Okay nevermind, forget it. Let's just keep tracking."
She barged past her befuddled brothers and lead the way, following the clear as day, bear tracks ahead of them. Her half-siblings were quick to follow, and the quartet continued onwards, leaving the chaos behind them… for the time being anyways.
Footnote: There we go, another crazy fight scene, a staple of this fic, really. And was it just a joy to write. You may have noticed a minor trend with Tian Yi and combat...
To be honest I feel like she got the short straw when it came to the jackal siblings. Shade and Sanjay have both got very... Larger than life personalities. Not that you don't find people like them in the world, it's just they're much... Much rarer). Dianbo is the protagonist (and my OC so... Subconscious bias) and Tian Yi is... The sister? Yay? So I'm working on developing her a little more this time around. Funnily enough her development is also something I've borrowed from Redwall (and this would count as a spoiler but I don't think you'd know who I was talking about anyways) or was inspired by. It's not the same situation or effect but... It's there.
Also fun fact, itching powder is primarily made of rosehips (or maple something), but I figured that dust and cobwebs wouldn't be so bad for animals (considering that's what actually makes them itch... And fleas, but boxed up fleas doesn't feel like Sanjay). And chillies are needed for that one gag. And it's India, so everything's spicy.
The flashback with Flying Rhino was fun- it's my opinion that he's not good with children. And a bit of an airhead. And for some reason I read him as Samuel L Jackson... Weeeeird.