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Chapter
22

True Speed of Shadics

Jibbawk walks toward Rubic and Allan with its hands behind its back. Each hand holds a thick quill dripping with poison. Killing Allan Westerfield will be so fulfilling. Its mouth waters with the sweet anticipation of revenge, and it shakes like a nervous youngling.

It still confounds Jibbawk that Allan, some stranger from another planet, managed to distract it enough to get it exiled to Plethiomia. It’s one mistake Jibbawk is not going to repeat. Once Allan is dead, it will go after Asantia and then Mizzi. They deserve the justice Jibbawk has the right to deal, the obligation to deal. Then it will proceed in taking back Lan Darr. This is its world! They are all its children, every last one of them. They need to be taught a lesson. They can’t ever forget who Jibbawk is. It is their leader, their father.

Rubic’s back is turned to Jibbawk, and Allan’s face is buried in Rubic’s shoulder. Jibbawk approaches them with amusement tickling its whole body. Its quills stand on monumental goose bumps. It so rarely enjoys things in its life, but this will be a treasure.

Rubic picks Allan off the ground and sets him in his chair. They aren’t speaking with their mouths, but something is communicated between them. They wear nervousness like a cloak of bricks. Allan gestures to the right.

Jibbawk steps into the light of the fire. “Isn’t thisss niccce. A family reunion.” Jibbawk’s hands are still behind its back, its mischievous grin restrains the pure joy that threatens to burst from its beak. 

Rubic turns and smiles. His smile is as fake as wax lips. “Isn’t this great! Maybe we still have time to meet with the council so there doesn’t have to be war.”

Allan tucks in his shirt and looks awkward, not fearful.

The fire is the only thing between Jibbawk and its prey. “Oh, I think you know that was all a lie.” Jibbawk looks at Allan. “And you don’t look very sssurprised to sssee me, do you, Allan Wesssterfield?” Jibbawk steps over the small fire, letting the flames lick its bird-legs.

Rubic doesn’t let Allan answer. In a quick motion, he lifts the back of his shirt with one hand and pulls out the alien-pistol with the other. He aims and fires. Being as good a hunter as a fisherman, Rubic’s shot nails Jibbawk square in the chest.

Jibbawk flies back a few feet, but is still standing and unhurt. “Ssssss! That was fun, wasn’t it? I threw that uselessss weapon away for a reason. But I am glad it gave you a measure of hope. It will be a much farther fall for you when I beat you down.” Jibbawk snaps his arms like whips, releasing the two quills. They fly fast and straight and pierce the chests of Rubic and Allan.

A roar from all around the camp splits the air. Soldiers burst from the dark and advance on Jibbawk like a tidal wave. They kneel in a tight arc formation, aim, and fire.

Jibbawk leaps into the air and spins like a ballet dancer. The shots fail to hit.

Jibbawk throws its arms out and a dozen quills fly. Six soldiers collapse. The remaining ones rush forward with shock poles for bayonets. Jibbawk dodges a thrust, spins and bashes a soldier’s back and leaves a few quills protruding from his wool coat.

Another soldier attacks, but is dodged and beaten by Jibbawk. A shock pole hits Jibbawk’s shoulder and sends it to the ground. The quills on its back rise up. Some are two feet long! The soldiers surrounding Jibbawk are afraid to get closer. Jibbawk looks like a pincushion. It waits and focuses its mind. It’s at home in battle, and danger only fuels its fervor. It was how it survived the dangerous and wild Plethiomia. If only Mizzi hadn’t been so ignorant to send it there!

Jibbawk chuckles. It might go visit Plethiomia for a vacation some day. Of course, it can only rest after it kills these men and their families, too.

Jibbawk shrieks and flexes its every muscle. Small quills leap off its back. Jibbawk jumps a dozen feet and lands on the shoulders of a soldier. The soldier crumples as Jibbawk vaults high above him and backflips. As its feet land, the five remaining soldiers collapse.

“I’m a shadic ruler! You can’t stop my kind.” Jibbawk has beaten twenty men and is ready for more. Some of the men moan and cry out in pain, others are silent. Where Jibbawk’s beak attaches to skin, it smiles. The red in its eyes glows hot and bright like little suns. Oh how it wishes there were more soldiers to fight. 

Neither Rubic nor Allan had collapsed after Jibbawk hit them with quills. Now they stare in awe, twenty feet away.
Good, be afraid of me.
Jibbawk walks toward them with a slight swagger. “Funny how you are not writhing in pain from the poison in my darts.”

Rubic pushes Allan to the left. Jibbawk leaps and lands closer to them. It tosses another quill and hits Rubic in the chest. Again, Rubic doesn’t collapse.
Curious
.

Rubic stands in front of Allan and lifts his shirt, exposing the woven square he’d made earlier. “I planned ahead. I remembered who you were a while back.” Rubic pointed to Allan’s chest. “You’ll recall I made two. Like I said, it’s a skill.” Rubic lowers his shirt and makes sure the shield is tucked into his belt.

Jibbawk advances toward the two. “I don’t need my quills.” Its quills tingle with the anticipation of the kill. Rubic and Allan stand their ground. Even with their secret revealed, they stand fast.
What an odd reaction.
Jibbawk looks at the ground. It taps the dirt with its foot. The false floor falls away, exposing a large hole. “Ah, niccce trap. Too bad I’m the sssuperior hunter here.”

Jibbawk leaps over the hole and plucks two quills from its neck and holds them up. “These thin quillsss will ssslip right passst those woven contraptions. They might not have enough toxin to kill you, but they’ll inflict round after round of agonizing pain. It will be more exciting for me that way.” Jibbawk continues walking up to Rubic and Allan, strutting with pride.

Rubic hugs Allan who starts to shake uncontrollably. “Leave us alone. We just want to go home, please!” Jibbawk smells the fear that spills from their pores, and it makes its quills stand on end.

“After I get bored of that I will cook your bodies and sssuck the meat off your bones. I’m due for a good meal.”

“Please, no!” Rubic snaps.

Jibbawk whips the quills and they hit their marks. Rubic falls back and Allan starts convulsing in his chair.

Jibbawk picks up Rubic and pulls him to its face. Rubic’s every muscle contorts and strains, and he is utterly incapacitated. “Ssooo sssorry to sssee you die. We’d become sssuch good friends.” Jibbawk, while holding Rubic off the ground with one hand, takes its other claw and slices open Rubic’s shirt. It lifts the woven square from inside the shirt and tosses it over its shoulder. The wind howls. Jibbawk breathes deep and presses its claw into Rubic’s chest slowly, waiting for a scream.

Rubic’s eyes pop open. They’re swollen with the telltale markers of agony.

Good.

“Unhand that man!” yells a small voice from the dark. Jibbawk looks toward the voice.

Mizzi steps into the light, holding a contraption that looks like a five-barreled machine gun.

“I’m not afraid of your funny looking gun.” Jibbawk presses its claw deeper into Rubic’s chest, spreading out his ribs and letting warm blood run over its claw.

Rubic cries out. Then he croaks, “How about my useless gun?” Jibbawk looks at Rubic then down to the alien gun pressed into its chest. Rubic pulls the trigger.

The blast of light slams into Jibbawk, throwing it back. Its chest feels like a sledgehammer had pounded it. Jibbawk lets its hands fall to the ground to catch itself.

Rubic crumples to the ground, obviously in grinding, spasming pain. He manages to lift the gun anyway. He aims and pulls the trigger.

Jibbawk doesn’t have time to jump. The bolt of light hits it in the head. It falls back, struggling to breathe. Rubic fires again, then again, then again.

Jibbawk stumbles back with every shot until its foot steps into the pit. Its eyes widen and its beak snaps open as it falls.

The hole is deep and dark. But the bottom has a surprise. It has a hundred poison thorns pressed into the dirt. Dozens pierce Jibbawk’s skin and pain explodes in every nerve.

###

“EEAAAHHHHOOOOWWWW!” Jibbawk wails.

Rubic collapses to his knees, clutching his chest. He has never felt such blinding pain. It’s worse than being burned, worse than being crushed. 

From behind, Mizzi plunges a needle into his neck, and the pain subsides immediately. Rubic lies on his back and catches his breath. He sees Mizzi scuttle to Allan, followed by the longest tail he’s ever seen, and gives Allan a similar shot.

“AAAAAAAHHHHHHSSSSSSSSS!” Jibbawk shrieks from deep in the pit.

Allan wakes, his eyes bulging and red. He sees Mizzi and smiles. “Is Rubic okay?” he says through gasps.

“Yes, he will be fine,” Mizzi says and pushes Allan closer to Rubic.

Rubic sits up, holding the puncture wound on his chest, stopping the bleeding. “Yeah, buddy. I’ll be fine. That hurt like a mother…”

Rubic and Allan move to the edge of the hole and look down. “Got you, again. Man you are bad at this,” Allan croaks.

Jibbawk lies at the bottom of the hole, pierced by dozens and dozens of poison thorns, unable to remove any of them from its body. It’s writhing in pain, tasting a similar fate it had brought to thousands of others throughout its life.

A year ago, Allan had been stabbed in the neck by one of those same thorns. It was the night he’d arrived at Lan Darr. After the balloon-like Lorebs dropped him into the river, he found a place to pee on the great wall. The plant defended itself and shot him with the thorn. Excruciating pain filled his body and didn’t quiet down until he’d removed the thorn. Now, with the small thorns piercing Jibbawk’s body, it will never be able to get them out. The thorns will hold it there, in a fiery limbo, until it dies.

Mizzi walks around to the fallen soldiers. He touches some lightly and whispers words to them. A few are alive but unconscious, others are moaning and in pain, and some are dead. Mizzi takes a long syringe and injects the survivors with the same antidote to Jibbawk’s poison. He reassures them before moving on to the next victim.

After he finishes, Mizzi sits next to Allan and Rubic and coils his extremely long tail beside him.

“EEAAAHHHHOOOOWWWW!” Jibbawk wails one last time before it goes silent and limp.

Rubic looks at Mizzi. “And who are you?”

“Hello, Rubic. I am Mizzi.” Mizzi shakes Rubic’s hand with his small, long-fingered paw.

“I remember your name,” Rubic says. He points at the hole. “How did you know to dig a trap right here?”

Mizzi scratches his furry snout, which is as long and fat as a loaf of French bread. “We’re monitoring the entire area. We detected the Hubbu gate Jibbawk created. Through the scope I saw Jibbawk. I did not see you.”

“Yeah, I was hangin’ back,” Rubic says, rubbing his thumping head.

“How did you know to make chest shields?” Allan asks, removing the woven square from under his shirt.

Rubic shrugs, and winces in pain. “I admit, I didn’t know Jibbawk was the bad guy at first. It told me some lie about wanting to bring you to the council or something like that. But I figured it out. Jibbawk showed me its true self over and over. I just had to see it.”