Terri, Pt.2

(Or, His Soul Was Freed From Sin.)

The Bandito elbowed his way through the crowd, carrying the bright red cactus.
Terri ran after him, dashing past the map stand again.
She straightened her body, avoiding a collision with another group of dragons as she chased after him.

He turned around, his face quickly changed from confused to surprised, as he quickly turned to speed away.

Terri gritted her teeth and willed her legs to keep pressing on, as she ducked and dodged a low-hanging sign.

The Bandito knocked over a barrel, small assorted fruits falling out. Terri angled her legs to avoid stepping in a cantaloupe.

I can't let him escape now.
He looked back, looking startled at how close she was.
Hell, I should bite his tail when I get close enough.
She rolled and barely missed a crate being carried by two SandWings, ending up on the other side and barreling forward, putting on an extra burst of speed as she turned the corner, almost sliding on the sand coating the ground. The Bandito was running out of places to go.
He stopped, raising his wings to take off.
"No, not today!" Terri yelled, grabbing ahold of his chest.

"Get off!" He yelled, lifting them both into the air.
Terri shook her head. "Not until I get that cactus!"

He opened his mouth, the air around it contorting from the sudden heat.
He's gonna blast me with fi-Oh right, that's nothing.

She grinned widely and felt her body absorb the flames, her muscles suddenly ceasing their aching and screaming from their loss of oxygen.

The flames stopped, as the Bandito blinked in surprise, sputtering. "Wha-you... How?"

She shrugged, grabbing one of his wings mid-stroke.

"Hey!" They plummeted to the street painfully, wrestling for control of the cactus.

"Give it!" Terri growled.
"No!"

She spun around and slapped at him with her tail ablaze, before he leapt backward, narrowly avoiding having his snout singed off.

He looked back toward the market, seeing his chance and dropped the cactus, sprinting away.
"Next time, flamescales! Next tiiiiime!"

(PLEASE get this reference.)

((If you didn't, you seriously need to watch up on Inspector Gadget…))

The Brightsting Cactus rolled to her talons.

She picked it up, gasping at the prickles impaling her scales.

"Ack. I'll just carry it like…"

Terri held the cactus up by one of its prickles, beginning to head back to the library.

I hope that poison isn't faster than me.

Sinai grabbed the cactus the second she entered the door. "Thank you. We need to apply it to the wound now."

Terri nodded. "I'm glad I could help. Who was that guy anyways?"

"Euphrates. He wants something I have, and I don't intend to let him have it."

"Is that whatever 'Cloudburst' is?"

Sinai nodded as she cut the cactus's leathery skin open. "It's….a weapon."

"Ah. Why is it so important to him?"

"You know what, I'm really grateful for your help and all, but I'm getting a bit uncomfortable with all these questions." Sinai snapped, squeezing the insides of the cactus out onto her brother's wound.

Terri recoiled slightly. "O-oh. Okay."

"Thank you."

"Yeah."

Terri sat in silence as Sinai tended to her brother, who eventually was able to stand.

"Um. Thanks. For everything." He managed.

Terri nodded. "It was no big deal. I think."

She looked outside, seeing that it had begun to get darker.
"Mm, I'll never find him in this light." Terri muttered to herself.

I guess I'll have to find a place to stay. Shame I don't have any money.

"You're looking for someone?" Sinai asked.

Terri nodded, glancing uncomfortably at the sinking scarlet sun. "That's how I happened upon you. I thought-"
She hesitated.
"I thought I'd find him here. I guess I was wrong. I think I took a wrong turn somewhere awhile back."

"Ah. What's his name?"

"Crusoe. I haven't seen him since…" She began counting the days on her talons.

Woah. Has it really been that long?

"Almost a week."

"Huh. Can't say the name's familiar." Sinai answered nonchalantly.

"Do you live here?" Her brother asked, tilting his head.
"No."

"Well, I mean, we have a place you can stay if you uh," he faltered when his sister glared at him.
"No." Sinai growled. "I won't trust your safety to some SkyWing we just met."

"She just saved my life. I'm pretty sure after that we can rule out her wanting me dead." he replied, raising an eyebrow.

Sinai went silent, looking off to the left.

She growled. "Unnnghhh, fine. Only for tonight. You better be gone by dawn." She told Terri, glaring suspiciously.

Nodding quickly, Terri stood up. "Thank you. I won't make you regret it."
Sinai rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Come on, SkyWing. We're heading back home."

Sinai's house wasn't much, just a small run-down sandstone building, with small glass-less windows on each side. The door was wooden, but had a large metal bolt barring the door from inside.

Sinai jiggled the door handle, then sighed. "Amien, will you-"
Amien held up a talon. "Already on it." he reached his arm through the nearby window, undoing the bolt despite the metal bars being in the window.

"Thanks." His sister said, lighting the room with a plume of flame as she made her way inside.

Terri followed Sinai inside, lighting her talons ablaze and using them as a sort of torch, before Sinai lit a nearby torch bolted into the wall.
The darkness dispersed, revealing the room.

A small cabinet sat beside the door, filled with scrolls and small trinkets, along with an inkwell, for writing things down, Terri assumed.

Multicolored rugs covered the floor, each one having some new intricate design than the last, or a new color scheme. A silver and black lockbox sat in the corner of the room, a small statue of a SandWing set on top of it. In the opposite corner sat a crate, filled with blankets and cushioned pillows.

"Woah…" Terri mumbled. "It's really nice here."
Sinai grumbled. "Huh. Such a shame you'll only experience it for one night."

Amein rolled his eyes. "Don't mind her. She's probably just mad you got to fight off Euphrates instead of her."

Sinai snorted indignantly, dragging a pillow and blanket out of the crate onto the floor.

"Suuuure. If anything, I'm thankful you made sure I don't have to see his ugly mug for a while."

Terri sat down in the back of the room as Sinai laid down a pillow over the top of the rugs, then put the blanket at a position where if she were to lie down, she could just pull the blanket over herself.

"Oh! Sorry for me asking, but what's your name?" Amien asked, getting out his own blanket and pillow.

Should I….

Bah, it won't make a difference.
"Terri."

Amien raised an eyebrow. "Hmm. Interesting name."

"Really? I didn't think so."

Sinai growled, pulling her blanket over herself. "Pff. Probably fake anyways."
"It is NOT!" Terri yelled.

"Is so." Sinai mumbled lazily.

"It is not! I know what my gosh darned name is, stop being such a...a….big-headed lizard!" Terri fumed.

"Whatever." Sinai turned over, making it so her back was facing Terri.

Amien shook his head. "Don't worry. There's er, some extra blankets," he said hopefully. "That is, if you want any, I mean."

"That'd be nice, thank you." Terri walked toward the crate, carefully stepping over Sinai, who happened to be sleeping next to it.
"Do you mind?" She growled.

"Sorry, I won't be long." Terri grabbed two blankets and leapt over her, setting her stuff in the far corner of the room, right across from the door.

She folded up one blanket into a makeshift pillow, then used the other one as, well, a blanket.

After pushing the covers down so she could lie down, she pulled up the blanket.

The warmth of the blanket soon sent her to sleep.

Terri awoke, hearing voices.
Sinai was up too, eyeing her from across the room. "You hear them too?"

Terri nodded slowly, pushing the blanket off her body and groggily walking to the window.

It's the middle of the night, what the heck….

She peeked out, seeing bodies shifting through the shadows casted by the moonlight.

Who would even be up this late?

Watching out the window a while longer, she waited as the voices fell silent.

She turned back to Sinai. "Must've been passing by late or somethi-" Something rolled into the room, cutting her off.
What the-
A fiery explosion erupted, the floormats instantly bursting into flame. Both Terri and Sinai let out similar cries of pain.

(They're not dead because these are low-budget Dragonflame cacti, and are therefore very smol)

"Since when...ow, frick….do shrapnel bombs exist here…" Terri managed, gritting her teeth.

Sinai ripped out a small needle-like object. "Not shrapnel, thorns!" She yelled, quickly dousing the flaming mats.
Explosive plants? What?

Terri fumbled around, pulling a long thin thorn out of her thigh, gasping in pain.
"I think Euphrates is back for more." Terri growled, standing up despite having at least fifteen more thorns inside her scales.

"What tipped you off? Sinai said, glancing over at the somehow still-sleeping Amien.

"Who else would want you dead?"

"You'd be surprised."

The other object tumbled in. "Oh, to hell with that, I think I've had enough presents for today!" Terri scooped up the small object, finding out it was also a cactus. She lobbed it back, nodding in satisfaction to hear multiple screams of pain seconds later.

"Yeah, how's your medicine taste?" She muttered, groping for another thorn in her arm.

Sinai began shaking her brother's shoulder. "Get up, you slept through a Dragonflame cactus explosion."

Amien yawned, sitting up. "Huh. Weeeeird. I had an explosion or something in my dream too."

Terri rolled her eyes, looking back out the window. The shadows were still moving, but she could hear groans of pain and unmoving talons had splayed themselves out of the shadows into the moonlight.

Did I just….

Kill someone?

I hope not. Maybe they're unconscious,

She hoped.

Sinai quickly walked over to the black and silver lockbox, tossing the mini SandWing statue off and putting in a combination. With a sound of sliding metal, the box opened in the darkness.
Amein's ears swiveled to the sound of the box opening. "Sis, please don't tell me you're giving it to them…"

Sinai pulled a long blade out of the box, grinning wickedly. "Oh, I'm gonna give it to him. Just not the way he hoped."

Terri blinked, peeking over her shoulder. "Hey, that material's familiar…"

The long, curved blade was a silvery black, with the edges glowing a faint cyan blue. The metal handle was an obsidian black, with tiny blue crystals speckled throughout it.

It looks an awful lot like what Crusoe's gauntlet was made of.
Sinai turned around, raising an eyebrow. "Oh really? So then if you know so much about it, then what type of weapon is it?"

Terri sat for a moment. "A Falx. It was a weapon used by the Dacian Army to pull enemies off of-" She stopped herself from saying too much. "-You know what, just do your thing."

Sinai glared at her. "You're hiding something, and I intend to find out what it is. But right now, his gang's probably regrouping, and this time, they won't be tossing in cacti."

Terri nodded, igniting her talons. "Let's do this then."

Amien opened the door nervously, carrying the lockbox. "I um, we, surrender! Please stop throwing your cactuses! They're spikey and don't look very good in the walls that I scrubbed earlier…."

(Amien: I JUST FUCKING SCRUBBED THESE WALLS ASSHOLE)

Euphrates slunk out of the shadows, followed by some eerily cloaked SandWings.

"Ah, I see Sinai finally listened to the more sensible one in the family. Speaking of her, where is the loving sister? I'd love to see her expression of utter defeat, before I claim what's rightfully mine, I mean." He asked, grinning sinisterly.
Amien blanched. "Erm, inside. She's busy um, pulling the thorns out of herself right now."

Euphrates smirked, flicking his tail. "Ah. Not so tough anymore, is she?"

Amien looked down, not answering.

"Well, let's get this over with. Give me Cloudburst."

Carrying the box over, Amien remained silent, handing it to Euphrates and quickly backing away.

Euphrates opened the box eagerly, his face quickly twisting from confusion to anger.

"Do you think I'm an idiot?! WHERE IS IT?!" He roared, tossing the box aside.

A shadow passed over him and his accomplices.

Euphrates turned around, flinching at the blinding light of the moons. On the roof of the building behind him stood a dragon, who casted a dark shadow across Euphrates's bewildered expression.

Sinai grinned, twirling the Cloudburst Falx in her claws and raising her tail.

"Right here! Come and get it, if you want it so bad."

Euphrates gritted his teeth, his left eye twitching.

"Alright, kill her. I'll deal with the mumbler."

The dragons behind him launched themselves at Sinai, claws out and ready to slash her to pieces, mouths agape and eager to blast her into ash.

Her grin widened as she turned and winged off, casting back a glance.

After gaining a significant distance, Sinai spun around, flinging the blade like a throwing axe.

Her group of pursuers faltered, shying away from the flying blade, which soared past them and allowed Terri to boost herself out of a nearby alleyway, snatching it out of the air and falling back to the ground.

She bolted out into the open, lighting her scales ablaze to better illuminate where she was.

Terri headed back toward the house with the Falx clutched tightly in her talons as she looked back to make sure Euphrates's 'associates' were still on her tail, which they were.

She scrambled around the corner, seeing the house not too far away. Euphrates was calmly strolling towards Amien.

Doesn't exactly look like he wants to give him a hug.
Kite leveled the blade in her talons, narrowing her eyes at Euphrates.

Whoo, haven't used a two-handed weapon in a while.

She lowered it at an angle, preparing to rip straight through Euphrates's insides.

Sinai came back around the corner behind her, calling out to Terri.

Whatever, it's probably not important.

Terri leapt in the air, using her wings to boost her forward. Euphrates turned around, his eyes wide open in fear as the faintly glowing blade suddenly illuminated the surrounding area before slicing into Euphrates's jaw.

Terri landed on the other side of him, not looking back until Euphrates screamed in pain.

Thunder rumbled in the skies above.
Terri looked up.

What the-
Lighting impacted Euphrates, silencing him and illuminating the surrounding area. He fell to the ground, unmoving as a foul, burnt smell mixed with the ozone in the air.

Terri tossed the Falx away, trembling. "Oh my god…"

Amein blinked in shock, his mouth gaping in disbelief.

"Oh my god, oh my god, what have I done…." Terri muttered fearfully, slamming her eyes shut before they could drift back to Euphrates's seared corpse.

(I mean, it's not the lightning that kills people. It's actually the cardiac arrest CAUSED by the lightning. And if you survive THAT, your brain cells will deteriorate anyways, making you a veggie boi)

Terri fell to the ground, shaking her head in disbelief.

Why didn't I stop?

…

Why didn't I listen?