Chapter Twenty-Nine: Day's Happening At Bodega Bay

The sun was beginning to rise when Chug started to wake. He felt toasty warm and wondered when Kokiri had crawled in with him. He didn't remember him coming up to bed. But he found his answer when his chin was poked by something in sharp. Torch had crawled under the covers with him. Soft jingling bells had alerted him to Jester's presence, also under the covers. Jester had his back to Torch while Torch was cuddled up to him as close as possible.

Chug smiled softly down at them and carefully crawled out of bed to let them sleep more, giving Torch the doll he had from the ship and putting the covers back over them, making sure each one was tucked in nice and cozy then left the room.

He found Kokiri resting on the couch with Blade snoozing away on his chest. Pinhead and Tunneler were by the dying fire and Six Shooter was poking it with a stick he found.

After checking on them he headed over to the kitchen to make some breakfast for himself and Kokiri. Torch had told him that the puppets couldn't eat like normal so he didn't have to make a large meal. Then again, Kokiri hadn't eaten in four days. . . .

Kokiri stretched his limbs as far as they could, hearing a bone crack in his spine before relaxing. His sensitive ears could hear sizzling emanating from the kitchen and his nose told him it was bacon. Bacon, potatoes, eggs, sausages, coffee, pancakes and waffles. His stomach growled at the scent, waking Blade.

"What the hell was that?" he asked sleepily.

"My stomach. I haven't eaten a full meal in four days." Kokiri said, lifting Blade off his chest and onto the coffee table and sat up and headed to the kitchen.

"So, how did you and fox-boy enjoy your night?" Six snickered.

"Shut up, Six. I just learned that he's the Guardian of Magic and that he can give magic as well as take it." Blade said.

"Say what?" Six mumbled.

"Yeah, and his eyes absorb light. He cannot be physically harmed for more than a few seconds." Blade said and told his three brothers about last night's events.

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Meanwhile with Torch and Jester. . . .

Jester was woken from his slumber when something heavy rolled onto him. "Torch! Torch, get up!" he gasped. "Torch!"

Torch sat up when the jingle bells wouldn't stop ringing and yawned.

"Torch! You're crushing me!" Jester wheezed and started kicking his feet.

Torch rolled off Jester who took a deep breath and rolled onto his back. "Thank you." Jester panted.

"Jester! What are you doing here?" Torch asked, noticed the teddy-master in his arm and quickly hid behind his back.

"The hotel is filled with spiders and scorpions! I don't want to be out there by myself! Not when Blade's injured and can't walk!" Jester answered. ". . . What are you holding behind your back?"

"Nothing." Torch quickly said and scooted back into the covers.

Jester looked on and decided to leave it. Six teased him enough, he didn't need to make Torch feel like a hunted animal. "Okay, shall we head on down to the lounge room? I'm suppose to help Blade with his physical therapy." Jester said and jumped off the bed.

Torch looked on to see if Jester would walk forth to catch him in his view and see what he was hiding, but Jester waited. So he tucked 'Teddy-Master' under the pillow and slid off the bed to walk down to the lounge room with him.

Jester was trying to think up a subject to talk about on the way down. He never really spent much time with Torch due to his flamethrower, but with the Kid around and giving Torch the attention he never received, Torch was shown to have a childish side. Which proved that he was a child in the first place and probably had the mentality of a child, so he wasn't sure of what would be appropriate for Torch to talk about.

"Watch your step." came Torch.

"What?" Jester slipped down the first step before Torch grabbed his hat and prevented the rest of the fall.

"Stay focused." Torch said and hopped down the stairs three at a time.

Jester looked on, rubbing his bum as he watched Torch hop all the way down the stairs with both feet. 'Aw, he's just a baby, really.' he thought and carefully walked down the stairs.

Torch hopped down the last four steps and sat down to wait for Jester.

"Is it me or are the stairs more shiny than before-ORE-E-E!" Jester asked, yelping the last bit as he slipped down the last ten steps and then slid past Torch.

"Um, I think they've been recently polished." Torch said, running over to Jester and helped him up.

"That was fun. Let's go again!" Jester said and ran to the stairs.

"Jester, maybe just from the last two steps and you can see how far you can slide across the hall." Torch said and watched as Jester took his advice and slide right past him almost all the way to the wall this time.

"Torch, you've gotta try this!" Jester cackled as he slid to a halt.

Torch looked at the stairs, then at Jester who was laughing, then skidded his foot across the floor. They didn't slide on the new slippery floor the way Jester did with his entire outfit. "Um, I don't think I'm built for it." Torch said walking over to Jester and helped him up again. "Come on, Blade's probably restless from not being able to move on his own for the last three days." he said.

"Yeah, you're probably right." Jester said, dusting himself.

Blade was kicking his feet, testing the new leg's mobility before he put his weight on it. So far he had been able to move his foot up and down at the ankle, then slowly rotated it a few times before working his knee joint, keeping his ankle straight. Then he worked both the knee and ankle joints together to see if they worked properly. He was waiting for Jester to come down so he could start his therapy because Jester was assigned to help him with it. He didn't want the kid on his case should he ever disobey his orders.

Although there was the magic the brother had lent to him last night. Maybe with the magic's help he'd be properly healed and walking tomorrow. He really wanted to test this theory out but Jester was taking forever!

He laid down on the floor by the fire when he heard laughter coming from the main hall entrance and knew that it was Jester having his fun for the day. If Jester woke up in a good mood the day was bound to go smoothly with little complaint from Six's constant whining about Jester's arachnophobia.

He propped himself up on his elbows to see Torch and Jester walking in, Jester was dusting his behind with his mischievous smirk on his face and his little playful giggle.

"And what's put you in such a playful mood, Little One?" Blade asked, propelling himself up to sit properly.

"The floor's been waxed and I slipped down the stairs, past Torch and did it again." Jester answered and helped Blade up to his feet. "So, how does this physical therapy work?" he asked.

"Just make sure I don't cause myself anymore damage while I practice walking with the cane. Do you have a timer with you?" Blade asked.

"Boss gave it to me last night." Torch said and handed a stopwatch over to Jester. "But I don't know how to work it."

"Boss?" Blade asked, wishing he could quirk an eyebrow.

"He doesn't like it when I call him . . ." Torch looked around to make sure his master wasn't within hearing range. "master." he whispered and went over to the coffee table to keep out of the way. "He said five minutes walking and no longer." he added.

"Okay, shall we get going? You're probably going crazy being restless." Jester said and started the timer.

Blade took a deep breath, put the ebony cane forward and then took his first step on his wounded leg. Then a step with his right leg, then the cane, the wounded leg, the right leg, the cane, the wound, the right. He walked in this pattern til he reached Torch and the coffee table, panting from the hard work.

"You still have three minutes to go." Jester said.

Blade groaned and turned around, moving the right leg first, then the cane, then the wounded leg until he was fully turned and walked back to the fireplace. The walk didn't take as long but it wore him out and he dropped when Jester called out the five minutes. He prayed that he still had the magic inside him and he tried to focus on it to sense his leg's progress.

"Blade? Blade are you feeling OK?" Jester asked, running over when he saw Blade drop to the floor.

"M'fine, jus' tired." Blade said quietly. "I haven't been able to walk in three days and this is a bit overwhelming. Give me ten minutes and we'll try again."

"But Boss said only five minutes of walking." Torch said.

"Five minutes of walking, ten minutes of rest." Chug said, entering the lounge room. "B's got it right, my wee bairn, you don't have to worry about it. He's in good hands, now how about you and me work on our personal project? Do you remember what it was?" Chug asked.

"Um, . . ." Torch rubbed the back of his head before shaking it.

"Well, come along and I'll remind you." Chug smiled and picked him up and left the room.

Jester looked over at Blade, wondering if he had any clue about this personal project. Blade didn't and he stood up to continue with his therapy.

"So how does that new leg feel?" Jester asked, keeping an eye on his posture. The new cane helped to keep his back straight unlike his knife, and it went very well with his black ensemble.

"At the moment, it feels like it's on fire from all the pain." Blade gritted and sat down at the coffee table to catch his breath. "Can you check it to see if there's anything wrong?" he asked, taking deep breaths.

Jester rolled up the pants leg and checked around to see if there was any infections, but found a surprise when the leg appeared to be solid wood. The seam from where the leg was cut in half to insert the titanium steel bones was gone. At first he thought it was because the glue that was holding it together made it nearly impossible to see the sawed line, but there were no faults anywhere.

"Uh, I don't see anything. Maybe you need an X-ray scan." Jester said.

"Can you go find the kid, my leg is really killing me." Blade hissed back the pain.

Jester dropped the stopwatch and left the room to find the kid, or at least the brother. He was too worried about Blade to think about the spiders and scorpions roaming around the hotel to be afraid of them.

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Blade calmed his breathing and tried to focus on the pale blue ball that the brother had given him. It was temporary magic but he hoped that it was still there. He imagined the black void and then the blue ball and mentally sighed in relief when he found it still glowing and rotating inside him. He reached out to it with his sense of touch like he was taught and focused on his leg.

The leg came up and he gasped at its progress. The sawdust paste was liquefying itself to resemble muscle, ligaments, tissue and some body fat, surrounding the IV cord and securing it closer to the metal bones. The metal in his foot started to mutate from the simple foot to the complicated bones of the real thing: the tarsal bones, the metatarsal bones and the phalanges.

He started to develop individual toes and the sawdust started to fill in the gaps between the bones to act as cartilage, ligaments and all the other stuff that goes in a foot.

He opened his eyes and lied back down. Well, that explained the pain. Maybe he should talk to the brother instead of the kid.