Hell Hath No Fury - Book One

Temple Times

"I would refrain," Xyra frowned and crossed her arms, "that is dangerous and we don't know how it works."

"I know how it works," Cooker said.

"See? Cooker knows," Theo said and stood up, she held out her arm and pointed the handcannon towards the horizon.

"We can use five bullets," Cooker stood up and began to jog towards the jungle, "c'mon we'll go find stuff for target practice."

"Leave the handcannon here while you do that," Xyra scolded and held out her hand. Theo turned in the weapon like she was asked to and bolted off in Cooker's direction. Theo spared a glance back to Xyra and watched her closely observe the handcannon and its parts. She could feign that she cared about safety all she wanted, Xyra thought it was as cool as everyone else did too.

They lined up a few pieces of bark and leftover glass bottles they had been storing to act as target practice, as they had done for arrows countless times before. Once they were all set up, Cooker went first, of course, because it was her prize and she made sure to brag about it at every step. Theo, the fool that she was, stood close to Cooker and when the handcannon went off, it nearly made her lose hearing in the ear closest to the gun.

When Cooker pulled the trigger and the shot went off, dozens of birds flew out of the jungle; fleeing whatever horrid thing was threatening their peace. Cooker didn't hit anything but Theo hadn't expected her to, it was a new weapon and they didn't know how to use it. On Theo's turn, there were no more birds left to scare but the noise was just as loud. Theo also missed. They each made fun of each other but on their second shots, they both hit a target. Xyra was offered the last shot and she declined, probably to not give them the satisfaction of being right about how fun it was to play around with a deadly weapon. Cooker took her last shot and barely hit her target. When the fun of the handcannon wore off, they had a mandatory theoretical discussion on the dangers of a lethal device like that being produced in large quantities. And then right after, they spoke about how cool it was.

The sun had set far too quickly for her liking. She wanted each sun to last longer. The more sunsets she witnessed, the closer she was to leaving half of her crew behind. Not behind, per se, but in Theo's mind it was the same thing. They enjoyed the jaedi with some rice that Cooker had brought with her, a change from simple jaedi skewers they had had for lunch. When dinner ended, their fire was running low and Theo was tasked with getting more firewood. Cooker tagged along, mostly just to annoy Theo and less so to help.

"She looks more relaxed," Theo commented on their short walk back to the campfire.

Cooker followed Theo's eyesight which landed on Xyra. Cooker nodded a bit, "Aye, but I think that has more to do with someone else than with us."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Our little talk yesterday was only a small factor in her good mood, I have a sneaking suspicion that Navi is the one behind the demeanor," Cooker explained.

"Navi? They're back together?" Theo asked.

With the ups and downs between Navi and Xyra, one would assume Theo would be opposed to them being together but it was quite the opposite. Theo saw the care both of them had for each other and she was hoping now that they were a bit older, more mature, more willing to speak about things, that it would mean a healthier relationship. It would always be Navi for Xyra and Theo just wanted Xy to have what she wanted.

"No clue," Cooker shrugged, "I couldn't get it out of her. But I do know that the whole time you were gone Navi did not leave Xy's side unless she was forced to by Tuni."

"I'll get it out of her," Theo challenged herself.

Cooker shook her head, "Fat chance."

They walked back to the fire and Theo tended to it, making sure it was big enough to provide all of them with adequate warmth. Cooker took the lull in activities to trek back to the house and when she came back, it was with a pipe and a small satchel. Without even asking if the others wanted any, she began to stuff the pipe and then handed it over to Xyra when it was ready. Xyra wordlessly took it, grabbed a piece of twine that Cooker had brought over, and lit the pipe before passing it on to begin the rotation.