Chapter Forty-Three: Torch
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Torch woke up and was feeling lots better than before. He sat up and looked around for Master and saw him standing by the stove, stirring something in a pot. An unexpected cough caught Master's attention. Master's kind, warm smile always made him feel all toasty on his inside.
"Morning, my wee bairn. How are you feeling today?" Chug asked, taking a thermometer out of his pocket and stuck it under Torch's armpit to take his temperature.
"Better." Torch answered.
"You sound better." Chug smiled and removed the thermometer. "Your temperature's gone down as well. That is very good." Chug placed the thermometer in a plastic container and put it in his hat. "Now, I brought you here because I wanted to show you something. Do you remember asking me why you had a high temperature but your flame felt low?" Chug asked.
Torch nodded.
"Well, here's an example. You see the fire burning under the pot?" Chug asked, pointing at the pot.
Torch nodded. "Uh-huh."
"Well, it's at a normal burn now. You see the colors yellow, orange, red and blue is at the bottom?"
"Uh-huh,"
"Blue is on the bottom of the flame because that is where it is the hottest. Keep watching the flame when I turn the dial down." Chug said and stood up and headed over to the stove.
Torch kept an eye on the flame like Master asked and brightened his eyes when all the other colors left until only the blue remained and the fire was really low. As low as he felt. He looked at Master who was waiting for him to put the things together. His brothers didn't let him figure things out on his own, just ordered him around.
So Master said the blue was the hottest part of the fire and he turned the flame low. His own flame felt low but Master had said he had a high temperature. So a low flame and a high temperature . . . . "I'm . . . feeling . . . blue?" Torch asked.
"There you go, my wee bairn." Chug smiled and picked him up for a hug. "And yes, low flame, high temperature. My wee bairn, it does mean you're feeling blue. But you feel better, yes?" Chug asked.
"Yes, lots better." Torch answered and coughed a bit.
"You still have the coughs, but those are always the last things to go. So don't you worry. I'm glad you're getting better." Chug said and stirred the pot once more before shutting it off and pouring its contents into a bowl.
Torch didn't like the looks of it. It was red and there were thick, nasty, fleshy looking . . . stuff in it. Master wasn't gonna eat that, was he? What if it was poison? Or maybe it was for one of the other scary-red-loud robots? . . . . No, it wasn't. Master was gonna eat it!
"Torch, are you okay?" Chug asked, pulling a chair out and getting ready to sit down.
"What's that?" Torch asked, pointing at the bowl Master was holding.
"Oh, it's ravioli. Here, let me get the can." Chug said, setting the bowl down and went to a different part of the kitchen. "Don't knock it over, please, I haven't eaten yet."
Torch looked at the bowl of red mush with the flesh bits. Master said it was food, but it didn't look like food. Master said not to knock it over, but Torch's protective instinct was kicking in. That mush was bad. But it was ingrained into his system to obey the Master.
Master returned and sat down with a red can that had big words on it and a picture that looked like the red nasty mush.
"Alright Torch, let's see you pronounce this." Chug said, putting the red can in front of Torch.
Torch looked at Master then at the red can then at the bowl of mush.
"Come on, say it with me. Rav . . ."
"R-Rav,"
"vi,"
"vi,"
"oli,"
"oli,"
"Rav-vi-oli."
"Rav-vi-oli."
"Good, now put it all together." Chug said.
"Rav-vi-oli. Rav-vi-oli-. . . . Ravi-oli, rav-i-oli., . . . Ra . . . Ravioli."
"Good boy, Torch. Now, why do you look so concerned about it?" Chug asked, picking up a spoon and scooping out a big fleshy piece and putting it near his mouth.
Torch put his hand out to stop him but pulled it back and fiddled with his flamethrower.
"It's fine, wee bairn, would you like me to run a scan over it first, just to be sure?" Chug asked.
Torch nodded.
Chug chuckled and ruffled his helmet before whipping out his travel-sized scanners and ran a scan. He brought up a holo-screen and let Torch do some of the readings with him.
"Do you know what the readings mean?" Chug asked.
Torch looked at the readings, one read Nutritional Value, one read sodium level, they were all about the food.
"Food bad." Torch said, pointing at the bowl.
"It's not bad, Torch."
"It smells dead."
"Yes, that would be the meat inside the ravioli."
"No, bad like totems. Evil."
"Hmm, evil food." Chug placed the spoon back in the bowl and tapped its rim with his thumb. "Tell you what, I'll call Kegs and have him test it for me. He can detect poison anywhere and won't die from it. Will that make you feel better?"
Torch nodded. "Brother Lord."
Chug subtly quirked an eyebrow at that and made a mental note to tell Kegs. He took his phone out of his pocket and typed away on it. "There, sent him a text, should be here any minute. So, what book do you want to read tonight?" he asked.
"Ooh! Moby! Moby!" Torch exclaimed, waving his arms in excitement.
"You messaged me?" Kokiri asked, coming out of nowhere.
"Torch thinks this food's bad, like 'totem' bad. Can you test it out? I'm hungry!" Chug asked, in a slight pleading tone.
Kokiri dipped a finger in the red mush and tasted it, licked his lips and dipped his finger back in a couple more times before guzzling the whole bowl down.
"Hey!" cried Chug.
"Mm," Kokiri hummed, smacking and licking his lips. "Interesting flavor. Mint cyanide, strychnine, a dash of arsenic and a smidgen of (smacks lips) negative energy transport. .. . . . Is there more?"
"That was my lunch! Now what am I gonna eat?" Chug whined.
"Here, I went fishing earlier. Nearly drowned Blade in the process too, and he destroyed your medicinal garden in the green house but we fixed it." Kokiri said, handing Chug a large half eaten fish.
"And by 'we' you mean you?" Chug smirked and tossed the fish in the air. "Well, as long as nothing's too damaged. I need that medicine for their coolant. Can't you find Blade some other quiet place to meditate?" he asked.
"The only places left for him to meditate are the beach and the cliffbank where I found Jester's hat." Kokiri said, handing a skewer to Chug.
Chug took the skewer and skewered the fish with it and walked over to Torch. "Could you?" he asked.
Torch, looked at the fish, the brother, then at Master. "Um, me torch fish?" he asked.
"Yeah, light 'em up, big boy." Chug smiled.
Torch lit his flame and set his spray to a certain level so he wouldn't burn Master on accident, but a sudden violent couch set it too high and he turned away to cover his cough like he'd seen Master done a few nights ago, but forgot to turn his flame off and accidentally set the fire alarms off in the kitchen, flooding the place with ice cold water.
"My bairn!" Chug dove over Torch to cover him from the water but was pushed aside by Kokiri who took on the full blast of Torch's fire.
Chug went around a corner to shut off the water manually, lest his wee bairn's illness get worse.
The water stopped and Chug hurried back to check on Torch. His flamethrower was still going and he could see Kegs's hidden tail start to smoke as his fire side grew in strength.
Torch stopped coughing and shut his flame off and peeked up at Master out of slight fear. He'd nearly torched him. What if the brother would get mad at him, or worse? What if Master got mad at him?
"Torch, are you okay? You didn't get wet?" Chug asked, wrapping him up in the blanket.
"Nope, made sure of that." Kokiri said, steaming because he was wet and his fire side was heating up and wiped black soot off his face. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go take a long shower." he said and left the kitchen. "I'd like more of that poisoned soup, though!" he hollered.
"I'll see if we have any!" Chug hollered back. He rubbed the blankets around Torch, making sure he was dry before bringing him back out. "Are you really Ok? You didn't get wet?" he asked again, trying to get Torch to look at him.
Torch shook his head.
"Torch, I'm not mad. You did save me from being poisoned, yes? And you can't control when a violent cough will sneak up and attack you. I'm not mad at you, my wee bairn. You couldn't help yourself." Chug said with a kind smile and picked Torch up into a hug when he sniffled. "Oh, it's okay Torch. You're okay. You're okay." He gently rocked him as Torch silently wept at almost hurting him.
"I bad." Torch mumbled.
"No, you weren't. You're okay. Come on, we'll cook the fish in my room where it's safe, yeah?"
"I sorry. I bad."
"Torch, it's okay. Kegs isn't mad at you either. I know he's not. The only person who can really harm him is me, and I don't like to. I've done it once and I don't want to do it again. So, believe me when I say you are not bad and you don't have to be sorry. All children get sick and it's up to the parents to make sure they get better. Even if they do wind up getting hurt sometimes." Chug said and bundled Torch up, gathered his soaked not-even-cooked-in-the-slightest fish and went back to the attic room.
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(author's note)
Before anyone objects to my bad grammar when Torch is speaking, try to think of his speech pattern as that of a two year old. I originally wanted to put in a paragraph where he pouts about feeling better but still continued to cough.
