Chapter Three: Brains and Brawn

"Thank you, Wolfgang. Just set those logs over there," a blonde girl said blandly as she worked on a flower crown. Her rather blank expression and hollow eyes would be pretty unnerving if she wasn't so cute looking.

The large muscled man, apparently named Wolfgang, happily set the wood a few feet away from their campfire. "Wendy is not scared of night. We have good fire!" he proclaimed with a booming laugh. "If you are not scared, I will not fear either!"

Wendy, finishing the garland, examined her handiwork and gave Wolfgang a weak smile. "Here. This should keep you in the right mind," she murmured, standing on her toes in order to place the flower crown on Wolfgang's head.

"Is nice present, Wendy," he chuckled.

"It's almost night time," Wendy observed, brushing the dust off of her skirt. "You remember what to do at night, right?"

"Yes! I will keep away from you and ghost," Wolfgang stated.

Wendy nodded silently with a rather small smile. She went to the edge of the camp to collect some twigs. The sun was setting and Wolfgang sat by the fire, filling his mighty stomach. Luckily, the pair had gathered plenty of food for the both of them. The muscled man just needed to eat a bit more then little Wendy did.

Wendy could hear the hissing and spitting of spiders at night finally fell. She knew the horrible little creatures would find them soon enough. But she wasn't worried. In fact, she saw this whole thing as a bit of a welcomed challenge. For her... And her sister.

A hissing, different from that of the spiders, sounded from the earth near Wendy. The girl continued to stare into the darkness as a glowing white form appeared behind her. "Hello, Abigail," she greeted the ghost calmly. "How are you tonight?" Abigail said nothing.

Meanwhile, Wolfgang sat as close to the fire as he could without burning himself, clutching a spear in his shaking hands. He didn't like night time. At all. Nor did he like the spiders and things that crawled out of the darkness. The light of the fire was his only comfort.

A pair of spiders, the size of small dogs, scuttled into the ring of light. They hissed and one leaped at Wendy, fangs bared. The strange girl made no move to flee and instead calmly smiled. Her smile was the last thing those spiders saw.

Abigail made quick work of the spiders, dropping the broken and twisted carcasses when she finished. The ghost hovered over the dead spiders, casting an eerie glow over the bodies. Several more spiders crept near the firelight but few were brave or stupid enough to attempt to attack the camp. The ones who were stupid didn't last long at the mercy of Abigail. Some managed to sneak around Wendy and Abigail to attack the shaking strongman.

Unfortunately for the spiders, Wolfgang had strength and fear on his side. He kicked, stomped, and stabbed the spiders, shouting curses at the creepy creatures. "Go away! Evil little spiders!"

This continued for most of the night. Eventually, Abigail disappeared and the spiders had all either died or ran away. Wolfgang sat down and sighed in relief, dropping the now broken spear to the ground. He began to munch on some seeds as he surveyed the campsite. Bodies of spiders littered the ground and Wendy was already busy collecting spider silk and- yuck- the glands of the spiders.

"What does Wendy need spider goo for?" Wolfgang asked, making a disgusted face at the spider corpses.

"It's actually quite useful for healing wounds," Wendy answered. "In fact, come here. You've got a few scratches and you wouldn't want those to get infected."

Wolfgang wasn't to keen on the idea but he would be thankful for it later.

I admired Wendy's intelligence much more than Wolfgang's strength. And her interesting ability to summon her ghostly sister was something to be admired too. Well... Not really admired. More like studied.

Maxwell and Willow weren't nearly as impressive to watch. Willow was amusing but she wasn't the best fighter. The pair of them were just bumbling about. I'm surprised they even lasted one night. I guess that's the only reason they interest me. Maybe stupidity acted as death repellent.

Wendy was the brains. Wolfgang was the brawn. And Maxwell and Willow were just a couple of test chimps. Dumber than a couple of lab rats. Or... Maybe not. Willow seemed to be a bit clever with her use of fire. But I don't have any compliments for Maxwell. Not yet at least...

Oh. Wait a minute.

Something interesting was happening...

"How did you manage to set an entire herd of Beefalo on fire?" Maxwell barked, staring in disbelief at the scorched corpses of the once furry beasts.

Willow kicked a pile of ashed, looking at the ground almost in shame. "I was making a fire and one of the big things startled me so... I threw a lit torch at it." She looked up at Maxwell, pouting like a child who was about to get punished.

Maxwell sighed heavily and shook his head. "I don't know whether to be impressed or upset," he grumbled. He had abandoned his damaged coat a while ago and he rolled up his sleeves. "At least we have plenty of pre-cooked meat now."

Willow grinned and snickered, looking proud of what she had done now. "You're welcome, Maxy~" she taunted. She received a harsh glare from Maxwell.

"Will you just come over here and help me with this?" he growled.

It took almost an hour or two to collect all of the meat but the two of them soon had enough meat to last them several days. Willow tore into her share of the meat, still proud and gloating over Maxwell. "Ooh~ I'm the great Maxwell! And I can't even catch more than a puny bunny!" she cackled, posing with a leg of Beefalo in the air like a baton. "A little girl could catch more meat than me!"

Maxwell sat by the fire, eating his own meat in quiet annoyance. He stared into the fire in an attempt to ignore Willow's boasting but after a few minutes he had to speak up. "Technically, pal, you didn't catch anything," he said, not even looking up from the fire. "You threw a torch at it and it caught its herd on fire on accident."

Willow froze and looked down at the man, mouth hanging open in surprise. She slowly sobered and plopped down next to Maxwell before glaring into the flames. "Whatever," she snapped, taking a huge angry bite out of her food.

A smug smile spread across Maxwell's face. "Ooh~ I'm the great Willow," he taunted. "I got scared by a harmless hairy beast and accidentally started a wildfire."

"Oh ha ha! Shut up, Maxwell!"