Fic: Souls, Slayers... and a Scythe???
Author: mkcrl120
Disclaimer: All the characters mentioned in this story belong to Joss Whedon or Mutant Enemy or some other people. I own nothing and wrote this just to get it out of my system.
Summary: Set two weeks after the events in Explaining Africa 3
Authors Notes: I have no clue about Africa. Which is probably always a good place to start writing a story. So if details I've used for place names, and tribal names and whatever are wrong then just (correctly) assume I have no idea what I'm doing.
Rating: 15 by English standards (mainly for language)
========================
Chapter 1c:
Amy watched in horror as the 'woman' charged at Xander. She wanted to scream, she wanted to help, she wanted to do... something... anything, but she found herself frozen to the spot. Unable to do anything other than watch as Xander was caught in a crushing bear hug. Her studies came back to her, although the Confslack's were by nature a peaceful race, the strength available to them due to their mass made them quite capable of ripping a bear in half should they become threatened. 'Why hadn't I mentioned this to the others, why is it only now I'm remembering info which could have saved xander's life?'
Xander, for the most part, had flinched the second he heard the roar, as the woman had charged he'd tried to get his legs to move in any direction. He had been unable to move more than a foot or so before having the wind knocked out of him, as he was engulfed in her grasp.
Amy finally found the ability to scream, as her piercing shriek flowed through her vocal chords she was aware that Roger had fainted.
Focusing on Xander's face, she noticed the grimace that had been there previously, was slowly being replaced by an expression of confusion. Out of her periphal vision, she could see Shote move towards her fallen team-mate. Suddenly, a large hand was placed on her shoulder from behind, realising the owner of the hand, she began screaming again.
Turning to face her assailant, she looked up into what could only be described as gentle eyes. A stange gutteral sound was uttered from the mouth, her only conscious thoughts, 'Oh God. Oh God. Oh God. Don't eat me. Please don't eat me.' All knowledge gained from her time as a watcher gone now, and she felt herself sharing in Roger's irrational fears.
Unable to take break eye-contact, she heard Shote speak from somewhere to her left where he was trying to rouse an unconscious Roger. "English. They speak English."
The man simply smiled at her trying to put her at ease. "It's okay little one. The wife was just saying hello to your friend there."
'Hello?' Her brain tried to get around the concept, 'this was a normal 'greeting'? Could we look any more unprofessional?'
She tried to respond with a greeting of her own, but discovered her vocal chords were still in mid-scream. She managed to rein them under control. She coughed a little bit to try and soothe the soreness that such use had caused.
"Thanks for that." The large man in front of her said, making an elaborate job of wiggling a finger in each ear. "That's quite a pair of lungs you've got on you?"
Her hands subconsciously crossed her over chest. "Hel.." she squeaked, she took a deep breath and continued in a regular tone, "Hello, sorry about that. Just a little bit unprepared, that's all. She gestured for him to bend down so she could whisper in his ear, "Any chance of persuading her not to give me a greeting like that."
"I'll see what I can do, but," he whispered as equally secretly, "she hasn't done much of what I say since we were first married." His bellowing laugh was quite infectious, and Amy couldn't stop the girlish giggle that she failed to stiffle.
"Actually," he continued "she's not normally that friendly with people we don't know. Better go see what's going on."
They walked over to the others, leaving Shote in his attempts at reviving Roger.
"Xander, why is that woman carrying you around?"
"Xander..?" the man next to her looked deep in concentration.
The woman in front of Xander reluctantly put him down, but kept a very firm grip across his shoulders.
Xander looked pleadingly towards Amy, his eyes trying to get her to explain everything without having to appear rude. Amy just shrugged and continued to stare between the man and the woman.
"Sannus?" The man asked, requesting an explanation of his own.
The response that returned wasn't in any language that Amy understood, a quick glance to Xander confirmed he looked equally lost too.
"You have to speak English dear."
"That's the language you're speaking now, right?" the woman apparently known as Sannus queried.
"Yes."
Amy and Xander shared a look that just said 'Finally.'
"So, why did you feel the need to hug this young man? Leaving me for a younger model?" He teased.
Sannus played along, "I would... but these humans don't last as long as we do, there's probably no more than fifty years or so left in the boy."
"So if you're not after a human for a toyboy. What are you doing?"
"Banturn, it's Xander. You remember Xander?"
Amy looked around at the group; Sannus stood in such a way that she just 'vibed' disbelief at her husband's forgetfullness, Banturn for the most part started to squint at Xander, seemingly hoping that would aid his recollection. Xander just met eyes with Amy and shrugged as though to say, 'This is not my fault.'
Banturn had given up, "Nope, no idea."
Amy watched as Xander let out a sigh of relief, "Phew, thought I was gonna be the only one without a clue then."
Sannus turned to her husband, emphasising specific words she said. "Xan-der... You remember. From Ameri-ca... We went to his wedd-ing..."
Banturn still looked a little lost. Sannus waited for another half a minute before resigning herself to the fate that she would have to say what she didn't want to. "Where he was going to get married to Anya."
Amy gulped at the mention of it, she'd been with Xander for almost two weeks, and so far that name had never been mentioned aloud. Hell, it'd never even been hinted at. In an attempt to force herself not to look into Xander's eye, she found her gaze moving to Banturn,
Amy could practically see the light-bulb turn on inside Banturn's head. "Anyyaaaa!!!! Of course, so what ever happen..?" The joyous look of success left Banturn in a split-second. "Very sorry to hear about your loss. She was something special."
Amy could barely hear Xander's response. "Yes, she was." She forced herself to look at him, and found that he had locked down every emotion. None of his thoughts could be seen on his face. 'Wonder if this is what Dawn meant, when she said that when the chips come down, Xander had the strength to be everyone's rock?'
Shote had given up in trying to awake Roger, instead they made the decision to move everyone inside for the time being. When Banturn casually picked Roger up by the torso and led them into the living room, Amy reminded herself that although they seemed friendly enough, these were the wrong people to have as enemies. She did however commend herself for thinking of them as people and not demons.
=====
Roger awoke on an unfamiliar sofa. Opening one eye, he realised that either the hangover hadn't kicked in yet or there was a possibility that he was still drunk.
Listening, he could hear the familiar voices of Xander and Amy talking in the other room. There were definitely other people with them but he couldn't be sure who. Deciding that curiousity had gotten the better of him, he stood up and began making his way to the doorway. 'Body doesn't feel like I've been drinking, think brain what was I doing before I passed out?'
As he approached the door, he could see his friend Shote sitting at one end of the long dining table. As he entered the room, he could see a large black woman he didn't recognise with his back to him, Xander and Amy were sitting opposite her. Amy talking in her overly excited way about whatever had caught her attention this time. 'Swear that girl is like some kind of magpie or something...' At the other end of a table was a large black man that he seemed to have a vague recollection of. Xander had been the first to notice him enter.
"Look what finally woken up. Welcome to the land of the living."
With that the other occupants of the room all turned to get a better look at him. That's when he saw her, the demon-woman who'd attacked Xander. He couldn't help it, he let out an involuntary "Aaarrghhhhh!!!" before he could stop himself.
The woman in front of him smiled good naturedly. "Sorry about before. Just a little misunderstanding."
"Buu... Wha... Ho.... Whe...." was all he could manage.
"You forgot Who and Why?" Amy teased.
Still not fully regained the ability of speech. He could only point between Sannus and Xander.
Shote tried to intervene, "We're all friends here. She recognised Xander... from before."
As Roger was still struggling to come to terms with what had happened he felt a powerful grip across his shoulders. "Let bygones be bygones and start again eh?" a deep voice belonging to the arm said, "How about a drink?"
Roger clasped at the concept of drink, 'That is definitely what I need now. Get a few inside me to calm the nerves and I'll be okay.' "Sure" was his response.
Xander raised his eyebrows. "Drink. The new universal language."
Roger moved to the empty seat between Shote and the woman he didn't know.
When the man returned with a cool pint of lager, Roger turned to him and apologised, "Sorry about earlier. Nerves and all that. So... I'm L... Roger Craddle, formally of Her Majesty's employ, now find myself contracting for some Watchers Council. And yourselves?"
Banturn smiled. "Banturn Converslact and my beautiful wife Sannus Converslact."
"Banturn and Sannus eh? I've been here a few years now and they don't sound very African."
"Oh we're not African. They're some good old family names, I was named after my Grandfather and my wife was named after her mother's youngest sister."
"Ahh... Family. Very important. Must always remember family eh?" He could see both Xander and Amy staring on in disbelief, 'What, did they think I was only talkative when drunk? For over twelve years, I was employed to do this very thing. You can keep your demon hunting and fighting and researching and what-not. Polite conversation around a table with a few drinks, that's my element.'
Remembering something, Roger turned to Shote with an accusing look in his eyes. "You told me they were called Greg and Marsha!"
"Ahh…" Sannus explained. "'Greg' and 'Marsha' are the names we generally use when dealing with people not aware of our demon status."
Roger heard Amy chip in with, "But why Greg and Marsha, it's hardly African is it?"
Banturn smiled. "Oh, you misunderstand my dear, we have many names. It generally depends on what language we're speaking as to which names we'd choose to use."
Sannus expanded upon that, "If you'd spoken to any of the locals, well those that don't know of our demon status, and asked for either 'Greg and Marsha' or 'Banturn and Sannus' then they wouldn't have brought you here. However, if you'd have spoke to the ones in the know about our demon heritage, well them you could ask for any two names and they'd just assume it was us."
Banturn gave that bellowing laugh of his. "Remember that time, those tourists were lost. And they were requesting the name of a bank, and they got sent here?"
Sannus giggled at the memory. "That's not as bad as that big bad demon slayer that arrived that time to wipe us out. He was funny."
Roger felt at home in a demon environment for the first time since he had learnt of their existence. As he relaxed more he began to tell some of his own tales, some involving his introduction into the world of the supernatural, others simply about the goings-on behind the world of politics.
Soon it became apparent that everyone was joining in with trading stories of adventures.
=====
A few hours later
They were finally going to go home. Xander could feel the stress dropping from him. He'd been in the presence of two people who'd known Anya, and what happened to her. He couldn't imagine how many questions they must have been dying to ask, but luckily for him they had decided against it. Xander swore to himself that at some point he would return to visit the Converslacts and see if he could talk about it with friends of Anya. He hadn't really brought it up with his own friends who'd at least known both of them; to talk to a group of people, hell even a single person, who the only thing they had in common would be each knowing Anya... that just seemed impossible at this point.
Amy came out and requested the keys off him. Originally he was going to drive but he'd been persuaded to join in with a few drinks. Amy had commented that as long as it's night-time, and it's not too hot she'd be fine driving. 'Think she might have picked up on the fact that I was decidedly uncomfortable once Anya was mentioned. Course if she had access to Giles' files then she'd know quite a bit about it.'
Roger came stumbling out, Shote and Roger seemed to be trying to hold each other up. 'Seems him, Shote and Banturn made quite the group when they got going. I wasn't keeping up when we were all on lager. Glad I decided to calm it down when they hit the spirits.'
Banturn and Sannus came out like they hadn't touched a drop. 'They've got a better constitution than the Harris family.'
The only person missing was Amy. 'Where was that girl? We have to start on the road while my stomach still believes it can take it.' "Amy!!" he shouted.
"Behind you!" was the reply.
'How did she get there? I must be drunker than I thought.'
Roger and Shote had managed to climb into the back of the jeep, and had somehow managed to each use a side of the spare tyre as a pillow. 'Wish I was that drunk.' he thought to himself 'Blind-stonking-pissed is always better than overly-bloated-don't-let-my-stomach-move-too-much drunk.'
Amy came out gave both Banturn and Sannus a hug and climbed into the jeep.
Sannus came over as Xander climbed into the passenger seat. "Just out of interest... What did you come down here to see?"
"Huh?" Xander managed to get out before Amy decided to do all the talking for him.
"Nothing important. We were just looking for a demon."
"Well you found two of us," Banturn smiled at her.
"Not exactly, we were looking for a specific type of demon."
Banturn joked, "See we're not good enough for them."
Sannus looked interested now. "What type?"
Xander waited to see what Amy would say, when no reply was forth-coming he joined in, "That's the thing we don't know."
Sannus looked amused. "So, let's check if I've got this straight. You're looking for a specific type of demon, but you don't know what type?"
"Yep..." Xander grinned, "quite the little quest we've got, eh?"
"So how are you going to identify it? What does it look like?" Xander shrugged. "Where does it live?"
Amy was first to respond, "Dunno, possibly in a cave. That's the only clue we've got so far."
"And the source is less than reliable." Xander chipped in.
"What does it do?"
"Wish-granter."
"Ahhh..." Banturn replied, as if that explained everything.
"We're not trying to grant wishes for ourselves." Amy was quick to correct that notion.
"No-sirree." Xander added as he climbed into the passenger seat. 'If we leave now I might make the whole journey without being sick.'
"It's not that... it's just..."
The Converslacts continued to talk to Amy as she walked around the car to the drivers side. "What?"
"Did you tell Shote what you were after?"
Amy continued to answer, "I'm not sure, Roger did all the talking." Xander turned round to see Roger snoring away, Shote was too. 'So much for any answers from them.'
Sannus shared a look with her husband and then shrugged, "It's just that all the really powerful wish demons normally live at the south of the continent. Shote could have told you that."
Now Xander was awake. "All of them?"
"Well the more powerful ones anyway."
"There are some up nearer the equator, " Banturn conceded.
"But nowhere near as many." Sannus finished for him,
"Thank you. Thank you." Xander jumped out of the car and hugged Sannus.
Amy grinned, "Yes, thanks to both of you."
"You have our number if you need any help. But you can probably find out most things from Shote."
Xander jumped back into the car. Leaning out of the door, he called to the world at large. "Home,and then onwards with our quest!"
Amy started the car, and began to move off back towards the main roads. Xander was still leaning out the car waving back to them.
About thirty seconds later, the car came to a halt as Xander dived out of the passenger seat to throw up by a nearby wall.
=====
End chapter 1c:
========================
Author: mkcrl120
Disclaimer: All the characters mentioned in this story belong to Joss Whedon or Mutant Enemy or some other people. I own nothing and wrote this just to get it out of my system.
Summary: Set two weeks after the events in Explaining Africa 3
Authors Notes: I have no clue about Africa. Which is probably always a good place to start writing a story. So if details I've used for place names, and tribal names and whatever are wrong then just (correctly) assume I have no idea what I'm doing.
Rating: 15 by English standards (mainly for language)
========================
Chapter 1c:
Amy watched in horror as the 'woman' charged at Xander. She wanted to scream, she wanted to help, she wanted to do... something... anything, but she found herself frozen to the spot. Unable to do anything other than watch as Xander was caught in a crushing bear hug. Her studies came back to her, although the Confslack's were by nature a peaceful race, the strength available to them due to their mass made them quite capable of ripping a bear in half should they become threatened. 'Why hadn't I mentioned this to the others, why is it only now I'm remembering info which could have saved xander's life?'
Xander, for the most part, had flinched the second he heard the roar, as the woman had charged he'd tried to get his legs to move in any direction. He had been unable to move more than a foot or so before having the wind knocked out of him, as he was engulfed in her grasp.
Amy finally found the ability to scream, as her piercing shriek flowed through her vocal chords she was aware that Roger had fainted.
Focusing on Xander's face, she noticed the grimace that had been there previously, was slowly being replaced by an expression of confusion. Out of her periphal vision, she could see Shote move towards her fallen team-mate. Suddenly, a large hand was placed on her shoulder from behind, realising the owner of the hand, she began screaming again.
Turning to face her assailant, she looked up into what could only be described as gentle eyes. A stange gutteral sound was uttered from the mouth, her only conscious thoughts, 'Oh God. Oh God. Oh God. Don't eat me. Please don't eat me.' All knowledge gained from her time as a watcher gone now, and she felt herself sharing in Roger's irrational fears.
Unable to take break eye-contact, she heard Shote speak from somewhere to her left where he was trying to rouse an unconscious Roger. "English. They speak English."
The man simply smiled at her trying to put her at ease. "It's okay little one. The wife was just saying hello to your friend there."
'Hello?' Her brain tried to get around the concept, 'this was a normal 'greeting'? Could we look any more unprofessional?'
She tried to respond with a greeting of her own, but discovered her vocal chords were still in mid-scream. She managed to rein them under control. She coughed a little bit to try and soothe the soreness that such use had caused.
"Thanks for that." The large man in front of her said, making an elaborate job of wiggling a finger in each ear. "That's quite a pair of lungs you've got on you?"
Her hands subconsciously crossed her over chest. "Hel.." she squeaked, she took a deep breath and continued in a regular tone, "Hello, sorry about that. Just a little bit unprepared, that's all. She gestured for him to bend down so she could whisper in his ear, "Any chance of persuading her not to give me a greeting like that."
"I'll see what I can do, but," he whispered as equally secretly, "she hasn't done much of what I say since we were first married." His bellowing laugh was quite infectious, and Amy couldn't stop the girlish giggle that she failed to stiffle.
"Actually," he continued "she's not normally that friendly with people we don't know. Better go see what's going on."
They walked over to the others, leaving Shote in his attempts at reviving Roger.
"Xander, why is that woman carrying you around?"
"Xander..?" the man next to her looked deep in concentration.
The woman in front of Xander reluctantly put him down, but kept a very firm grip across his shoulders.
Xander looked pleadingly towards Amy, his eyes trying to get her to explain everything without having to appear rude. Amy just shrugged and continued to stare between the man and the woman.
"Sannus?" The man asked, requesting an explanation of his own.
The response that returned wasn't in any language that Amy understood, a quick glance to Xander confirmed he looked equally lost too.
"You have to speak English dear."
"That's the language you're speaking now, right?" the woman apparently known as Sannus queried.
"Yes."
Amy and Xander shared a look that just said 'Finally.'
"So, why did you feel the need to hug this young man? Leaving me for a younger model?" He teased.
Sannus played along, "I would... but these humans don't last as long as we do, there's probably no more than fifty years or so left in the boy."
"So if you're not after a human for a toyboy. What are you doing?"
"Banturn, it's Xander. You remember Xander?"
Amy looked around at the group; Sannus stood in such a way that she just 'vibed' disbelief at her husband's forgetfullness, Banturn for the most part started to squint at Xander, seemingly hoping that would aid his recollection. Xander just met eyes with Amy and shrugged as though to say, 'This is not my fault.'
Banturn had given up, "Nope, no idea."
Amy watched as Xander let out a sigh of relief, "Phew, thought I was gonna be the only one without a clue then."
Sannus turned to her husband, emphasising specific words she said. "Xan-der... You remember. From Ameri-ca... We went to his wedd-ing..."
Banturn still looked a little lost. Sannus waited for another half a minute before resigning herself to the fate that she would have to say what she didn't want to. "Where he was going to get married to Anya."
Amy gulped at the mention of it, she'd been with Xander for almost two weeks, and so far that name had never been mentioned aloud. Hell, it'd never even been hinted at. In an attempt to force herself not to look into Xander's eye, she found her gaze moving to Banturn,
Amy could practically see the light-bulb turn on inside Banturn's head. "Anyyaaaa!!!! Of course, so what ever happen..?" The joyous look of success left Banturn in a split-second. "Very sorry to hear about your loss. She was something special."
Amy could barely hear Xander's response. "Yes, she was." She forced herself to look at him, and found that he had locked down every emotion. None of his thoughts could be seen on his face. 'Wonder if this is what Dawn meant, when she said that when the chips come down, Xander had the strength to be everyone's rock?'
Shote had given up in trying to awake Roger, instead they made the decision to move everyone inside for the time being. When Banturn casually picked Roger up by the torso and led them into the living room, Amy reminded herself that although they seemed friendly enough, these were the wrong people to have as enemies. She did however commend herself for thinking of them as people and not demons.
=====
Roger awoke on an unfamiliar sofa. Opening one eye, he realised that either the hangover hadn't kicked in yet or there was a possibility that he was still drunk.
Listening, he could hear the familiar voices of Xander and Amy talking in the other room. There were definitely other people with them but he couldn't be sure who. Deciding that curiousity had gotten the better of him, he stood up and began making his way to the doorway. 'Body doesn't feel like I've been drinking, think brain what was I doing before I passed out?'
As he approached the door, he could see his friend Shote sitting at one end of the long dining table. As he entered the room, he could see a large black woman he didn't recognise with his back to him, Xander and Amy were sitting opposite her. Amy talking in her overly excited way about whatever had caught her attention this time. 'Swear that girl is like some kind of magpie or something...' At the other end of a table was a large black man that he seemed to have a vague recollection of. Xander had been the first to notice him enter.
"Look what finally woken up. Welcome to the land of the living."
With that the other occupants of the room all turned to get a better look at him. That's when he saw her, the demon-woman who'd attacked Xander. He couldn't help it, he let out an involuntary "Aaarrghhhhh!!!" before he could stop himself.
The woman in front of him smiled good naturedly. "Sorry about before. Just a little misunderstanding."
"Buu... Wha... Ho.... Whe...." was all he could manage.
"You forgot Who and Why?" Amy teased.
Still not fully regained the ability of speech. He could only point between Sannus and Xander.
Shote tried to intervene, "We're all friends here. She recognised Xander... from before."
As Roger was still struggling to come to terms with what had happened he felt a powerful grip across his shoulders. "Let bygones be bygones and start again eh?" a deep voice belonging to the arm said, "How about a drink?"
Roger clasped at the concept of drink, 'That is definitely what I need now. Get a few inside me to calm the nerves and I'll be okay.' "Sure" was his response.
Xander raised his eyebrows. "Drink. The new universal language."
Roger moved to the empty seat between Shote and the woman he didn't know.
When the man returned with a cool pint of lager, Roger turned to him and apologised, "Sorry about earlier. Nerves and all that. So... I'm L... Roger Craddle, formally of Her Majesty's employ, now find myself contracting for some Watchers Council. And yourselves?"
Banturn smiled. "Banturn Converslact and my beautiful wife Sannus Converslact."
"Banturn and Sannus eh? I've been here a few years now and they don't sound very African."
"Oh we're not African. They're some good old family names, I was named after my Grandfather and my wife was named after her mother's youngest sister."
"Ahh... Family. Very important. Must always remember family eh?" He could see both Xander and Amy staring on in disbelief, 'What, did they think I was only talkative when drunk? For over twelve years, I was employed to do this very thing. You can keep your demon hunting and fighting and researching and what-not. Polite conversation around a table with a few drinks, that's my element.'
Remembering something, Roger turned to Shote with an accusing look in his eyes. "You told me they were called Greg and Marsha!"
"Ahh…" Sannus explained. "'Greg' and 'Marsha' are the names we generally use when dealing with people not aware of our demon status."
Roger heard Amy chip in with, "But why Greg and Marsha, it's hardly African is it?"
Banturn smiled. "Oh, you misunderstand my dear, we have many names. It generally depends on what language we're speaking as to which names we'd choose to use."
Sannus expanded upon that, "If you'd spoken to any of the locals, well those that don't know of our demon status, and asked for either 'Greg and Marsha' or 'Banturn and Sannus' then they wouldn't have brought you here. However, if you'd have spoke to the ones in the know about our demon heritage, well them you could ask for any two names and they'd just assume it was us."
Banturn gave that bellowing laugh of his. "Remember that time, those tourists were lost. And they were requesting the name of a bank, and they got sent here?"
Sannus giggled at the memory. "That's not as bad as that big bad demon slayer that arrived that time to wipe us out. He was funny."
Roger felt at home in a demon environment for the first time since he had learnt of their existence. As he relaxed more he began to tell some of his own tales, some involving his introduction into the world of the supernatural, others simply about the goings-on behind the world of politics.
Soon it became apparent that everyone was joining in with trading stories of adventures.
=====
A few hours later
They were finally going to go home. Xander could feel the stress dropping from him. He'd been in the presence of two people who'd known Anya, and what happened to her. He couldn't imagine how many questions they must have been dying to ask, but luckily for him they had decided against it. Xander swore to himself that at some point he would return to visit the Converslacts and see if he could talk about it with friends of Anya. He hadn't really brought it up with his own friends who'd at least known both of them; to talk to a group of people, hell even a single person, who the only thing they had in common would be each knowing Anya... that just seemed impossible at this point.
Amy came out and requested the keys off him. Originally he was going to drive but he'd been persuaded to join in with a few drinks. Amy had commented that as long as it's night-time, and it's not too hot she'd be fine driving. 'Think she might have picked up on the fact that I was decidedly uncomfortable once Anya was mentioned. Course if she had access to Giles' files then she'd know quite a bit about it.'
Roger came stumbling out, Shote and Roger seemed to be trying to hold each other up. 'Seems him, Shote and Banturn made quite the group when they got going. I wasn't keeping up when we were all on lager. Glad I decided to calm it down when they hit the spirits.'
Banturn and Sannus came out like they hadn't touched a drop. 'They've got a better constitution than the Harris family.'
The only person missing was Amy. 'Where was that girl? We have to start on the road while my stomach still believes it can take it.' "Amy!!" he shouted.
"Behind you!" was the reply.
'How did she get there? I must be drunker than I thought.'
Roger and Shote had managed to climb into the back of the jeep, and had somehow managed to each use a side of the spare tyre as a pillow. 'Wish I was that drunk.' he thought to himself 'Blind-stonking-pissed is always better than overly-bloated-don't-let-my-stomach-move-too-much drunk.'
Amy came out gave both Banturn and Sannus a hug and climbed into the jeep.
Sannus came over as Xander climbed into the passenger seat. "Just out of interest... What did you come down here to see?"
"Huh?" Xander managed to get out before Amy decided to do all the talking for him.
"Nothing important. We were just looking for a demon."
"Well you found two of us," Banturn smiled at her.
"Not exactly, we were looking for a specific type of demon."
Banturn joked, "See we're not good enough for them."
Sannus looked interested now. "What type?"
Xander waited to see what Amy would say, when no reply was forth-coming he joined in, "That's the thing we don't know."
Sannus looked amused. "So, let's check if I've got this straight. You're looking for a specific type of demon, but you don't know what type?"
"Yep..." Xander grinned, "quite the little quest we've got, eh?"
"So how are you going to identify it? What does it look like?" Xander shrugged. "Where does it live?"
Amy was first to respond, "Dunno, possibly in a cave. That's the only clue we've got so far."
"And the source is less than reliable." Xander chipped in.
"What does it do?"
"Wish-granter."
"Ahhh..." Banturn replied, as if that explained everything.
"We're not trying to grant wishes for ourselves." Amy was quick to correct that notion.
"No-sirree." Xander added as he climbed into the passenger seat. 'If we leave now I might make the whole journey without being sick.'
"It's not that... it's just..."
The Converslacts continued to talk to Amy as she walked around the car to the drivers side. "What?"
"Did you tell Shote what you were after?"
Amy continued to answer, "I'm not sure, Roger did all the talking." Xander turned round to see Roger snoring away, Shote was too. 'So much for any answers from them.'
Sannus shared a look with her husband and then shrugged, "It's just that all the really powerful wish demons normally live at the south of the continent. Shote could have told you that."
Now Xander was awake. "All of them?"
"Well the more powerful ones anyway."
"There are some up nearer the equator, " Banturn conceded.
"But nowhere near as many." Sannus finished for him,
"Thank you. Thank you." Xander jumped out of the car and hugged Sannus.
Amy grinned, "Yes, thanks to both of you."
"You have our number if you need any help. But you can probably find out most things from Shote."
Xander jumped back into the car. Leaning out of the door, he called to the world at large. "Home,and then onwards with our quest!"
Amy started the car, and began to move off back towards the main roads. Xander was still leaning out the car waving back to them.
About thirty seconds later, the car came to a halt as Xander dived out of the passenger seat to throw up by a nearby wall.
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End chapter 1c:
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