8 TWLA 08

Jeremy sulked for awhile. It wasn't that he couldn't understand where King was coming from. But the man was so high handed about everything, even the reasonable actions were hard to swallow.

In a surprising turn of events, the overbearing tyrant approved him to finish what he started. In heated negotiations with 'Rose the Tree Bush's guardians, King left Rain Maker to fire up the purifier device at respectable distance. 'Blue Jay' was left to take his time bringing his patient and the wicker child back from the edge of the the third and final threshold. Helping Rain Maker recover from a few nasty gashes in her leg and side was the priority, however.

It turned out that 'See-sir' didn't mean sister. It meant Caesar. The patient he had saved was a guy around the same apparent age as himself. And, it turned out that King had unpure motives for letting Jeremy help him. Caesar's talent was making oil. Having properties similar to olive oil, it could be used to cook and as lamp fuel, among a plethora of other things. The guy's stigma was rather useful too.

Caesar was actually pretty resistant to corruption because he could regularly shed some in a victor's crown spray of spinach-like leaves. Tied up in such a way, the corruption fueled growths were relatively safe to eat after spending a 'short time' under the purifier's effect or Jeremy's newly discovered passive field. In fact, Rain Maker declared that they were a lot more nutritious and better tasting from his effect than what the over-sized rune carved 'butter churn' produced.

The wicker child's recovery hadn't came so easily under either. The purifier made her wither to a dangerously sick degree and Jeremy's power caused her to smoke. It took Rain Maker keeping her moist while he worked in tandem with the device to partially reveal the cute, five foot- nothing girl underneath. It turned out that her power and Rose's long-term influence were to blame.

Scamp possessed the talent of desiccation, the other side of Rain Maker's coin. It would have made her a terror of an offensive fighter if she wasn't naturally timid. As it was, she skated by as a second string water maker with her true potential buried under her personality. In a bit of a saddening turn, Scamp wasn't keen on accepting Rain Maker's mentorship offer. She did seem dead set on convincing Caesar to ingratiate himself with them.

Despite their obviously deep friendship, Scamp was insistent on parting ways. She felt regretful for convincing Caesar to stay with her when Lucky split the camp and left to form another. During one such conversation between the two friends, Rain Maker had an aside with Jeremy.

"Drop it. Scamp isn't telling us the real reasons she's staying and she isn't nearly as harmless as she seems. King won't let her come with us anyway."

Mildly surprised, Jeremy said, "I figured he'd be happy to have another girl or three tagging along."

Rain Maker shook her head. "Past King may have. I find myself dealing with a person I barely know at times, now. I think he might be trying to figure out who he is, himself. I-I think it's for the better, mostly."

Eyes wide, he said barely above a whisper, "He used to be worse!?"

"He would have killed every soul in this camp, looted it and hid the loot. No one in it was 'human enough' to be worth saving. In his own way, he compromised... Not only that but with Rose. He hated Rose.

"I don't think I've seen anyone be better of a person after coming back from nixing. The first time, he wasn't. He was frightening.

"This time... I don't know. Then again, I've never seen a person come back after being gone so long. It was a lot longer than I thought it was."

He said, "How long?... Uh, that might be rude. Nev-"

"I was sent here before you were born. King was sent here a couple of drops before me. More than that's hard to say...for more than one reason," she said with a distant and melancholy expression.

"But how? You look so...young!" he said.

A faint smile cut through her clouded features. "The only good thing about this place. Listen, you may not age much physically but you still get older. The emotions dull and you get... tired until something lights them back up. Sometimes... Sometimes I think it's better to leave them dull... Remember the man I mentioned to King, Rust?"

He nodded.

"He was our mentor. He claimed to be one of the first sent here. Rust once said that the first rift was made from a failed electromagnetic coil experiment. Not long before he nixed after he went crazy, he claimed to be over eighty years old. No one would think he was thirty, much less that old. He even said he lost a couple of years when he went back once.

"Of course, he was basing his age off of Earth time. It doesn't feel right to do that. Not because I think its less here... In personal time, I think its more. You'll understand soon enough."

Jeremy chewed on that while wrapping up what he could do for Caesar and Scamp. He noticed that the air between the two was less sad, a little more easy going. Whatever they had talked about must have accomplished what it was meant to. There was even a touch of something akin to anticipation, maybe hope.

"The Hush will be here soon and I'll be going to Rose's sanctuary. Before that, I'd like to give you something and do something for you as thanks for saving my friend," Scamp said.

Rainmaker said, "Don't... Blue Jay is still young inside."

The delicate pretty girl looked oddly at the taller, more rugged one and said, "I-see. Then Caesar and he should make good friends. He's not very old inside either... I'll respect the hard line but would you bend on the soft one? I only want to show him a skill for cleanliness. Soap and water aren't easy things to have here whenever you want them."

Rain Maker looked at Caesar meaningfully. "Scraping?"

Scamp nodded.

"A good skill to know. Caesar, accompany them. Scraping is something hard to do alone. Having another present and needing to help someone else with the hard parts will keep Blue Jay from getting carried away."

Jeremy didn't know exactly what was going on. But, he was slowly discovering that King wasn't the only tyrant in his life. Knowing that her bossiness came from a place of caring made it a little easier to tolerate but it still rubbed him the wrong way. After the fearsome display of prowess from Rain Maker and King earlier, however, he decided to pick his fights carefully.

She was also sadly right. Having Caesar around while he was learning how to oil scrape as a substitute for bathing and showering DID end up being a buzz kill. The guy liked to horseplay around. And despite being grown in every way that mattered, had a childish knack for being the center of attention in a way that wasn't actually that annoying.

It was all good anyway. Jeremy might have had a much different experience if it had just been him and Scamp intimately scraping oil off one another. But, it would have been tense for no good reason since 'Mamma Rain Maker' had already put her foot down.

Considering the confusion he was feeling over all the unaccustomed, no boundaries skinship he was experiencing, Jeremy was almost thankful for the intervention. He had to remind his short circuiting brain that even though a girl was naked and touching him, he was 'practically' naked and touching another guy. It was with a dull bone knife and a rag but he still didn't want to be 'caught' liking anything too much. That was especially true when he was quite a bit mixed up on what he should and shouldn't be liking.

A descending sense of dread and instinctual desire to find a place to hunker down in, marked the beginning of The Hush and the end of their 'playtime'. Scamp, who had been convinced to blow raspberries on Jeremy's 'soft' belly after Caesar had found out how ticklish he was, stopped and stood up. Putting woven rag clothes back on, she dug around in an inner pocket and handed him a clay ball with some symbols etched into its surface.

"I used to make these all the time until Rose's guardians told me to stop. Put some of your magic into it and throw it at something hard enough to break it. It will take the water out. Don't... don't throw it at something alive unless you want to hurt it."

Caesar wrapped her up in a Koala hug, completely ignoring his own state of undress and said, "Mah... I don't wanna say goodbye, Scamp. Who's gonna be my cuddle buddy?"

Giggling, she said, "You're the only one who would want to cuddle with me. I should be the one crying here."

Still clinging to her as she gently pried him loose, Caesar said through teary eyed sniffles, "You'll tell me who dares to make my Scampers sad and lonely while I'm gone... I'll beat them up."

"M'kay, I will. Be good and get along with your new friends, alright?"

As soon as she got free, she dashed off. Caesar turned and latched onto Jeremy.

Rubbing his face on Jeremy's 'marshmallow belly', the leaf crowned guy said, "It's too sad, right? We can come back and visit every now and then, right?"

Rainmaker entered the privacy curtain to the little cubby hole and said, "They've chosen to go native. So, its hard to tell how long it will last. But, for now, exchanges still happen between bases.

"Rose supports it. And with that trouble maker, Gargoyle, dead, she'll keep her nixed subordinates in line for a good time longer. Intelligent plant types are usually a lot more agreeable than beast types as long as they're not threatened or provoked."

Sighing, Jeremy said, "See, plenty of visit chances... I get that I'm a little fluffy but can I at least get dressed before you insist on harassing me?"

Caesar looked up at him, a little confused. "You're a purifier. You suit up during The Hush?"

Jeremy looked to Rainmaker for an explanation he hoped he could live with.

"Your passive field. It's not that large and closer physical contact will get better use of it. You don't have to-shouldn't be completely uncovered but I can't defend what is only reasonable."

As all the pieces clicked into place, he looked at her in sudden understanding. "That's what the warnings you and King gave me meant... How does a hush spent cuddling stack against active use? And... is there uh, use in... you know?"

A faint blush coloring her expressionless face, she said, "I haven't observed your power enough to answer that. At a guess, I'd say a hush spent in rest with you would be around one or two days of not using power while in a base purifier's area, more for high output or poor corruption tolerance types.

"Use your own common sense on the last one... I'm not going to tell you not to take care of your...needs. But know, avoiding... that... strengthens your passive field some. Every little bit helps when your whole life's a tightrope walk."

Caesar let out a jaw cracking yawn. "Yeah, so let's rest... I call belly pillow!"

"Maybe some other time, Caesar. Back to chest. We both have healing left to do... The more in his area you can fit yourself into, the better. Be glad that King will be busy this hush or you wouldn't have a chance at all," she said sternly.

Feeling a throbbing in his forehead, Jeremy said, "Alright. Looks like I have to draw a line somewhere or I won't even have the space left to draw one... I am already WAY out of my comfort zone with everything. I get to chose how, who with and if I rest... That's not even up for negotiation."

Although it was only for an instant, a look of blind rage passed over Rainmaker's face before it was reigned into a complicated one. "Today's fine but... If you refuse to-"

Jeremy cut her off. "I'm not refusing. I WANT to help. But, damn it, I'm a person, not a tool in your back pocket. Ask me. Don't tell. I mean, I get that there are times when nice has to take a backseat. But, you don't have to beat cooperation out of me.

"You could. King probably will eventually. But, believe this. You'll lose a lot more than you'll gain from me that way. If you would be so kind, do your best to let him know that too. I know without a middleman, that conversation's only going to end bad for both of us..."

The complicated look on her face transformed, yet again, into a troubled one.

He added, "I'm sorry for asking you but I don't have any other option. Not one I'm willing to live with, anyway."

She shook her head. "No, I'm sorry. Even animals understand simple consideration, of a kind. It doesn't feel so bad to be reminded it exists... I-I hope you're willing to bend a little. It might take some time but I think he can meet you halfway, eventually."

A light snore interrupted their conversation. Caesar had fallen asleep still hugging Jeremy's waist. His head cocked at an awkward angle where it was buried into 'Blue Jay's belly while side muscles still not fully healed would cause the poor guy's face to twitch in pain with each inhale.