It was fairly late when they heard Peter returning. Late enough that Steve and Carol had stopped in long enough to have a cup of coffee and compare notes from the various bonfire stories that had been heard before they'd gone to bed. Wong, too, had stopped in to make sure no one needed anything before he retired for the night. The other four were comfortable playing cards for hours at a time when they had the downtime to do it, but they were beginning to take surreptitious glances at their watches as time passed and no one had heard anything from Peter. None of them wanted to go to bed until they knew he was safely back at camp.

The main room of the common tent was well-lit, and all of them turned toward the entrance when they heard the zipper opening along the doorway. Because of that, they were all quick to see that all was not – exactly – well with Peter's world, just then.

"What happened to you?" Tony asked before the others could. "What-"

"Is that blood?" Pepper asked, half-rising out of her camp chair.

The boy was favoring his left arm, and there was, indeed, some blood smeared on the forearm. But that wasn't all, because there were… things… sticking out of the meaty part of his lower arm, and his clothes were smeared and dirty – with a tear on the leg of his jeans. The Cloak of Levitation had swept from Strange's shoulders and flew over, but whatever was smeared on Peter's clothing was enough to keep it from loving up to him like it might, normally, have done so.

"What's that smell?" Strange asked, also standing up. He gestured for the others to stay where they were but moved over to meet Peter and bring him to the table where there was more light. "Are those porcupine quills?"

"Is that what they are?" Peter asked, looking a little pale – even for him. "I wasn't sure. I thought it might be some kind of cactus, or something."

"Was it moving?"

"Yeah. I think. It all happened pretty quick."

"What happened?" Tony asked, again.

"Is he alright?" Natasha asked.

"I'm fine," Peter assured her. "Things just got a little crazy…"

Stephen was examining Peter's forearm, and Tony frowned. There were maybe twenty quills of various lengths sticking out of Peter's forearm, and that was where the blood was coming from. Not gushing, or anything, but twenty trickles of crimson that had smeared around his hand. While Stephen tugged on one, experimentally, Tony, Pepper, and Natasha were looking for more blood, or any indication that the boy was hurt somewhere else, as well.

"These are stuck pretty well," the doctor said. He, too, was looking Peter over for more injuries. "We're going to need to pull them, though."

"Porcupine quills are barbed," Pepper said, frowning, as well. "When I was a kid one of our dogs had a run in with one, and they were all over his face." She looked at Peter. "How did you manage to find a porcupine in Africa?"

"They're common here," Tony said. "But they're nocturnal, so we didn't see any on the safari during our honeymoon."

"Can you take care of it, Stephen?" Natasha asked. "Or do we take him home?"

"I can handle it," he assured them. Several items appeared on the table; medical items like bandages, a bottle of hydrogen peroxide, and alcohol swabs, but also a pair of needle-nosed pliers, a small basin, and tweezers. "What happened?"

Everyone watched as Stephen placed the basin under Peter's arm and then poured most of the bottle of peroxide over the area with the quills. Making the boy hiss and visibly force himself to hold still.

"I went with Azoru to see what they were going to do…" he said, finally, looking at Tony and Pepper. "And we went out to this dark area where some of the guys had built a fire."

"And…?"

"When we got there, they were all covering themselves with elephant poop."

Which explained the smell, Tony decided.

"Why in the world would they be doing that?" Pepper asked, frowning.

"To mask their own scent," Natasha guessed.

"Right," Peter said. "Azoru's cousin said that one of the Jabari guides was telling them about how native American boys would prove their bravery by sneaking up on enemy horses and slap a handprint on them and the guys wanted to try it."

"That sounds familiar…" Tony said, dryly.

"Right?" Peter nodded, and then yelped when Stephen pulled the first quill – taking a small chunk of flesh with it. "I was worried that they were going to go after elephants, because of the elephant poop. But Azoru said elephants are too dangerous – even at night."

"At least they weren't that stupid," Strange said.

He held up his hand and a small syringe was suddenly in it. He injected a local painkiller into the area around the quills and gave it a moment to take effect.

"Yeah. One of the guys said that elephants aren't predators and none of the other animals are afraid of them, so elephant poop was a good idea to mask their own scent with."

"What were they going after?" Natasha asked, curiously, wincing in sympathy when Stephen took out another quill. "Porcupines?"

"Zebra." He rolled his eyes, noticing that Tony and Pepper both recognized the similarity from when he was going to attempt the same thing. "Don't worry, I already knew I wasn't going to do it. I told the guys that I'd promised not go outside of the shielding, and that I'd given my word and wasn't going to break it."

"That would have appealed to their own honor," Stephen said, approvingly, as he took out another quill. "So they didn't try to talk you into it?"

"No." He shook his head, and winced, again. "They understood that I'd promised before finding out what they wanted to do, so it wasn't that I didn't want to try it. Just that I wouldn't leave the shielding, to keep my promise."

"And then what?"

"They told me that if I couldn't go to the zebra, they would bring the zebra to me."

"Oh, no. So there was a stampede and you ran away and fell on a porcupine?" Pepper guessed.

Peter smiled.

"Not quite. They had a herd of zebra just down the riverbed from where we were, and some of them snuck around to the other side to try and get them moving under the shield area. The idea was that they would settle a little and then we'd all be able to sneak up on them and slap a muddy handprint on them."

"I take it all didn't go as planned?" Stephen guessed, another quill coming out with a quick jerk.

"No. A couple guys stayed with me, we were going to make sure that they didn't go toward the gathering area – in case something went wrong and they were spooked."

"Which they were."

"Yeah. It wasn't a big herd," Peter told them all. "Maybe ten of them. But a couple were spooked enough that they didn't settle – especially when the wind shifted. Azoru thinks that they caught smell of the fire and it scared them. Instead of running away, though, they came at us."

"They charged you?" Pepper asked.

"Yeah. Kind of. Not me, though, but one of the other guys. He didn't see him coming because he was watching the other one, but I did so I pushed him out of the way – and then it was just bad luck, I think, that we scared the porcupine and it got us."

"Another boy was injured?" Natasha asked.

"Yeah. And Azoru hurt his ankle dodging out of the way when the zebra stallion came after him."

"Good lord," Pepper said, shaking her head, torn between being amused and being horrified. "You could have all been killed."

"Probably not," Peter told her, shaking his head. "It wasn't like the guys were being crazy, or anything, and they definitely realized that things were going wrong and that we should give up the whole idea." He smiled, then, looking just a little excited. "The zebra thing is a bad idea, but the challenge was fun – if there was an animal that wasn't quite so dangerous. Something smaller, maybe – or slower."

Tony shook his head, too, and looked at Stephen, who was still pulling quills.

"Is he going to be alright?"

"Of course he is, Tony," the surgeon said. "It's hardly life threatening, or anything – and it isn't like he was actively pursuing the porcupine, so you can't really scold him."

"Yeah," Peter agreed. "I'm the hero in this one, right?"

Pepper snorted, amused, now, at the way his father looked at him when he made that particular statement.

"Heroes aren't supposed to come home with holes in them," the billionaire pointed out. "And they certainly shouldn't be covered in elephant shit." He scowled at Natasha, who snorted. "But you kept your word, and you were looking out for the others, so Stephen is correct; I can't scold you."

"Or ground me," Peter added.

"Don't push your luck."

Pepper chuckled.

"We don't need to take him home, do we, Stephen?"

"No." The last quill came out, leaving holes but nothing so serious that any of them were too concerned. "He need a shower, and a change of clothes, and then I'll bandage him up and he'll be none the worse for the night's adventures."

"Go take a shower, son," Tony told him. "Then come back here and Stephen can make sure you're good to go before bed."

"Yeah. Thanks," he added to Strange, who smiled.

"You're welcome."

They all watched the boy head for his own tent – to get a change of clothes before he went to shower.

"That wasn't so bad," Strange said. He gave them all a wry look. "I almost expected something much worse."

"So did I," Tony admitted.

"The night isn't over," Natasha pointed out. "Let's not tempt fate."

True enough.