• Published 29th Nov 2017
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Hurricane Trinity - Lovesick-Ded



When the Storm King's statue is restored and revived, the former ruler seeks to travel to the southwest area of the world to confront former demons from the past. In order to do so, he will need assistance...from the least likely group to help.

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Capper The Fighter

HURRICANE TRINITY

An MLP Extended-Universe Story

Written by M.J. Hopper

CHAPTER FIVE

“Storm.”

“Mmpf…” The goat-creature rolled over slightly onto his side, clutching at the cushion he was using as a makeshift pillow; his back leg twitched slightly and he parted his jaws in a yawn. He raised a hand and waved it, as if to dismiss what he had heard. “No…gimme…a few more minutes…”

“Get yo’ ass up!” Capper grabbed the blanket that was under him and yanked it swiftly, causing the beast to flip over in an almost comical manner and jolting him into the waking world almost instantly. He landed on his back, his eyes wide with surprise as he stared up at the ceiling for a moment, before rolling onto one side and raising his head, irritated.

“What was that about?!”

“Y’all need to wake up, if you wanna get in on the action. We got ourselves a big day.” Capper looked down at him before smiling and pointing a finger toward the back of the room. “Besides, Grubber made us pancakes.”

Storm gave him a readable look that suggested a rather cynical “really,” but raised himself into a sitting position and rubbed at his head. “Ugh…well, now that I think about it, I didn’t really have a chance to eat last night. Pancakes actually sound okay.” He looked up toward the back, where the little hedgehog was preparing a trio of makeshift plates on the table, covered in batter from head-to-toe; every now and then he would stop to lick a patch off of his fur. It was then Storm noticed the pleasant scent in the room, and his mouth watered slightly. He got to his feet.

“You’re awake!” Grubber declared as Storm and Capper approached; he pushed a pair of fully-stacked plates in their direction with both tiny paws. “Look, I made pancakes. Really good ones too. And the batter tastes awesome.” His eyes glittered like stars. “You should try them!”

“Oh, you bet I will.” Capper took a seat at the table, pulling a plate in his direction. He motioned to the seat beside him, eyeing Storm. “C’mon, sit at the table like a normal guy. Anyone with a brain in their head can sense you’re hungry too.”

The former ruler was a bit hesitant, and he fidgeted his hoof slightly before finally stepping forward and sitting beside the young Abyssinian, who dug into the soft flesh of the pancakes and began devouring them. He stopped to chew and licked his lips, nodding toward Grubber.

“Mmpf…really good.” He stopped to take another bite, and then added, his mouth full, “Never thought about addin’ sugar in the mix. Really…mmm…makes all the difference.”

“I know, right?” Grubber beamed brightly at the cat-being’s praise. “It was a completely original idea. I figured, you know, since pancakes normally taste kinda bland…”

Storm eyed the plate in front of him, his heart pounding with discomfort ever so slightly, before finally breathing in deeply and taking a bite himself; he had to admit the flavor was quite enticing, despite the fact it was so…well, sweet. He looked over at Capper, then at Grubber, before the fact that he hadn’t eaten in awhile took better judgement and he began eagerly devouring the stuff, sometimes not even pausing to chew. The little hedgehog grinned at this and drew his paws modestly behind his back.

“Ooh, you like ‘em, don’t you?” He was grinning so hugely that both other creatures thought his upper jaw was going to dislocate itself from the lower. “This is like the FIRST time I’ve seen you eat my stuff with such intensity…” He paused for a second to think. “Actually, I think it’s the ONLY time.”

“I just—“ Storm began, raising a finger, but Capper shoved his hand aside, interrupting, and winked in Grubber’s direction.

“First time for everything, I guess.” The cat-being shot a glance in the goat-beast’s direction that insisted he not say another word, and looked back toward Grubber. “Now then…down to business at hand. Y’all obviously aren’t here to stay in Klugetown if you were hanging out at a backend bar. Obviously you were headed somewhere…but the question I wanna know is, where.”

“I was actually…kinda wondering the same thing.” Grubber raised an eyebrow, as if suddenly making a realization. “All I really knew was that, we were heading somewhere in the southwest area, but then Storm got all grumpy about the fact the map was—“

“I get it, I GET IT.” Storm rolled his eyes and tapped a claw on the table in irritation. He sighed. “The map was useless anyway. It didn’t mark out the locations on the southwest area…the area we need to go. We had originally STOPPED here so I could find one, but then…well, you know the rest.” He rested his head in one hand and looked in the other direction, glowering.

There was a moment of silence as Capper eyed him with a disapproving glance before speaking. “Well…if y’all need a map, you’re probably in the right place, honestly. Klugetown is a huge trading area for all parts of the world…we get shipments and trades in here from all over yonder, so obviously we need a map of the full area.”

He shifted off of his seat and got up, heading toward a bookshelf in the back corner of the room; his green eyes scanned the shelves before finally he reached up and pulled down a thick book riddled with footnotes, as well as some aged pieces of parchment. Dusting off the cover, he shook his head a bit as the resulting…well, dust…covered his whiskers, and then headed back over toward the table, dropping the book and the parchments in front of the two with a loud THUNK.

“Here,” he said, shifting back onto the chair and folding his arms atop the tabletop. “This is probably all the data I have on the surrounding world. Might as well look through it and see if y’all can find what you’re lookin’ for.”

“Capper…” Storm began; the cat-being eyed him for a moment as he fell silent. The goat-beast shook his head and looked at him with a mixture of disbelief and confusion, and continued. “I don’t…I really don’t get it. You HATE me. How in the name of all that is HOLY do you find the willpower to be so friggin’ NICE?!”

There was yet another, prolonged, moment of silence; the Abyssinian looked at him, head rested calmly in one hand, before shrugging a shoulder and placing a finger on the table. “It’s true, I DO have my own misgivings about y’all. But…try as I might…” He heaved a deep sigh of sentiment and looked down at the ground. “I…I can’t leave someone to fend for themselves…in a world where they have nothing.”

The taller beast fell completely and utterly quiet, his jaw slacking a bit; Capper looked up at him and grinned weakly. “It…it’s true that I feel for ya. I was once the same way. I had nothing to live for, nothing to prove…and nothing to go back to. I was up to my friggin’ NECK in debts to Verko, and then…”

His gaze shifted away, and for a brief moment of time, there was a glimmer in his green eyes; a glimmer that suggested a fond memory. He looked back at Storm and smiled again.

“…What more can I say. I made some friends. That’s really all there is to it.”

It felt like a dead weight had been dropped in the room; for a long time, the only sounds that were audible were the usual sounds of the howling sandstorm outside and the shouts of the citizens. The three beings in the room were almost completely void of sound save for their breathing, Storm especially; he was looking ahead as if there was something within his mind he could simply not fathom. Capper finally looked to the side and raised an eyebrow.

“…Right.” He pulled the book over toward himself and flipped it open, sending up a small cloud of dust. “Let’s look for where y’all need to go.”

“It’s in the southwest, remember,” Grubber piped up, attempting to pull himself up onto the table so he could view. “I dunno where, but…it’s somewhere over there.”

“Mm…we don’t really get a whole lotta shipments from the southwest.” Capper rolled open a piece of parchment and began scanning the lower left side of the surface. “Most of that area is pretty isolated…especially—“

“There.”

Storm almost autonomously pointed to a spot on the map in the far corner; Capper’s gaze traveled over and his eyes became wide with shock. He practically breathed the word, he seemed so taken aback:

“T…TAMBELON.”

He looked up, slack-jawed in disbelief, before shaking his head violently and practically spitting out the next question:

“Are y’all CRAZY?!”

Storm eyed him with no response; Grubber tilted his head slightly and wiggled onto the tabletop, plopping down near the map. “Tambelon…Tambelon…” He stuck his tongue out slightly as he thought. “I really only heard of that place in legends. You know, from the story of The Titanfall.” His eyes glittered a bit. “I REALLY love that story a whole lot. It’s a really cool—“

“The legend is entirely true.” Storm pushed the map aside and got to his feet, folding his arms slightly. He seemed oddly defiant. “I know that it’s mainly a fairy tale to most of you guys, but, The Titanfall WAS a real thing that happened.”

“Never heard much about The Titanfall to begin with, really.” Capper shook his head and got to his feet. “Look, all I know is that Tambelon is DANGEROUS territory, especially nowadays. If we attempt to go in there, we would be riskin’ our LIVES.” He looked off to the side and exhaled. “Not to mention the waters there are uncharted, so really only the Hippogryphs would know anything whatsoever about navigatin’ it…”

“Then we’ll go to Mount Aris and GET their help.”

The goat-beast was incredibly adamant for some reason, and Capper, regardless of how much he desperately needed to know why, continued to ramble: “Do y’all even THINK about what you say before y’all say it?! Queen Novo hates yo’ guts, man. Even if we did get their help, the place is deemed ‘The Realm of Darkness’ for a friggin’ REASON; the place is practically Hell on earth right now—“

“Which is EXACTLY why I need to go there,” Storm retorted; he narrowed his eyes at Capper and his tail swished a bit. “I was headed there to begin with from the start, and I really don’t CARE if you want to come with me or not; I’m going there.” He violently turned around and began to walk toward the hatch; the other two looked after him before looking toward each other. Grubber made a slight whimpering noise and pressed his ears against his head, and Capper nodded in response, looking equally as concerned. He flicked his gaze up toward the furred beast and finally asked the question:

“Why are you so set on this?”

Storm immediately froze mid-step and his shoulders arched slightly, as if he had been caught doing something he shouldn’t have. He sighed. “Look…I…I can’t let you in on the details right now. All I can tell you, is…this…this is my goal, and I intend to fulfill it.” He continued walking. “’Friend’ or not, I’m not letting anyone get in my way of this. When one has a goal in mind…they’ll do anything to fix it.”

“Fix it…?” Capper repeated. His ears dropped slightly and he looked over at Grubber, as he heard the hatch slam shut from the other side of the room. “Grubber…y’all aren’t a bad sort. Like at all. Even during Storm’s, like, bad days, y’all seemed to be a relatively okay guy.”

The little hedgehog cocked his head again, smiling a bit at the compliment but nevertheless looking confused. “Well, yeah. Never really was the type to be, you know, mean or scary. Let’s face it, I’m not good at either of those.” The two shared a mild laugh before he looked toward the hatch. “But, you know…I had my own goal, at that time.”

“What was that goal?” Capper asked, sitting back down.

“To be…worth something.” Grubber’s eyes wavered slightly and he looked down. “Y’see, where I came from, I was considered a bit of a runt. Technically, I still was in Storm’s army. But…things were kinda different, there.” When Capper eyed him with confusion, he continued: “I wasn’t…treated that badly, at least…not like I was back in my tribe. The guys, yeah, they laughed at me, but…it was because, I kinda…MADE them laugh. Everyone was always in high spirits, during the training, because I was there.”

“Didn’t Storm, like, treat y’all badly though?” Capper asked, resting his head in one paw slightly. “Why didn’t you leave if y’all weren’t the type to fight?”

“That’s the thing…he…didn’t, really.” Grubber’s eyes flashed with a slight hint of memory. “I, you see…I lost my father when I was younger, and the other members of my litter always made fun of me.” He sighed a bit and his ears lowered. “It was because I was so small. But…then, one day…”

Hey…you.

…What’s your name?

The voice echoed in the tiny hedgehog’s memory as he shut his eyes. “Storm...appeared. He…he was looking for recruits, I think…I can’t remember. What I can remember, though, is that…”

…Grubber, huh?

…I like you, Grubber.

“…He didn’t appear to judge me, based on my size or strength. Out of everyone he could have picked, from my litter, as a recruit…”

Let’s go.

He opened his eyes again and looked at Capper, small tears beginning to form in the corners of his eyes. “…He chose me. Over everyone else. And, I wanted to be strong, and, I wanted to be worth something. So, I chose to follow him. Granted yeah, I was not good at what I was doing, but…despite everything…”

…Because I like you a lot.

I wouldn’t say that…if I didn’t see anything.

“Storm…saw potential in me. And, like, yeah, he was rough, and a major hard-ass at times, but he still kept me around for some reason. It was like, he knew what it felt like to be mistreated, to be shunned by others. And, you know, despite everything he would do sometimes, to the other soldiers and to me…seeing him smile, in genuine…was like...the best thing ever.”

There was a long moment of silence as Capper’s ears dropped and he shut his eyes for a moment, his head falling a bit as if he had just heard something incredible and was unable to process it with the right emotion. He shuddered a bit, as if trying to contain something. “He…he really was like that, huh?”

“That’s…why I want to help. That’s why I wanted to revive him in the first place.” Grubber whimpered a bit and a few tears streaked down his face; his voice choked up. “H-he and Tempest…they were like…the only friends I had for awhile. A-and Tempest got another chance, and I miss her a whole lot, but she’s doing great for herself, so, I figured…”

“Grubber.” Capper reached out to place a paw atop his. His eyes wavered a bit. “There’s…there’s absolutely nothing wrong with believin’ in someone. Storm’s a bit…weird…but if you have faith in him, well…” He looked the little hedgehog in the eyes and smiled wearily. “Then, I do too.”

“So…so we’ll go to Tambelon?” Grubber sniffled and wiped at his nose with the back of his paw.

“I…I dunno if I can promise anything of that sort yet…but…” Capper got to his feet and began heading toward the hatch, motioning for the little gray creature to follow him. “We gotta find him first and bring him back here. I really hope to gods he didn’t try anything stupid…”

The two climbed down the hatch and Capper pulled the tarp aside, as they headed into the general public; the cat-being looked around almost desperately amongst the rabble for any sign whatsoever of the goat-creature, but he had no luck. Ears flattening nervously, he and Grubber ducked into a nearby alleyway…he knew all too well about what this alleyway was called and what wares it dealt, but, there was no other place he could gather this type of information more quickly. Everyone knew what went down in Shade Alley, at least, the ones that were wise enough…

Almost immediately he was met with the crooked, toothy grin of a stunted lizard woman. “Welcome friend,” she gurgled, shifting to the side almost like a snake. She lowered her eyelids at the Abyssinian. “Anything you’d be interested in today, by chance? We got something really interesting here…best deals anywhere.”

“I don’t have time for all this today, Sophie,” Capper replied, almost snapping. He shook his head. “Look, did y’all happen to see a weird-lookin’ goat thing, by any chance? Tall guy, white fur, long tail. Freaky pair of runic horns on his head. We…we were lookin’ for him, and we—“

“Oh, him.” Sophie’s gaze trailed off disapprovingly. She frowned at Capper. “Saw him earlier. He was looking for a compass or something…dumb beast said he was going out into the desert on foot; can you believe that insanity?”

The Abyssinian’s eyes immediately widened in fear and he grabbed the frail creature by the shoulders. “Which way did he say he was goin’, do you know?”

“South, I think.” Sophie seemed surprised by this sudden gesture and she raised an eyebrow. “Why do you care though? You don’t usually seem to be—“

“GODS DAMN IT.” Capper slapped a palm to his forehead and clenched his teeth, then opened his eyes and looked around. “Oh man, I gotta find a weapon or something…” His gaze shifted over to a nearby booth and he immediately grabbed the first pair of daggers he saw lying on the table. “I need to borrow these for a moment; I’ll pay y’all back later.”

“’Ey, those are—“ The merchant protested angrily but Capper seemed too frenzied with dread to hear him; he pocketed the daggers and snagged Grubber around the waist, running at top speed out of the alley and towards the southern edge of Klugetown.

“Wh-where are we going?” Grubber stuttered, as Capper raced out of the town and across the sand, refusing to lessen his speed for one second. He panted hard and looked down at the little hedgehog, who was clinging onto his side for dear life should the cat-being choose to lose his grip.

“There’s…hah…a monster in the southern desert,” Capper explained, his lungs feeling like they were about to give out but continuing to rush nonetheless. He looked up ahead. “It’s called a Sand Kraken by the locals. Really big, really territorial, really voracious. We were done just lettin’ it be since it didn’t seem to come near the town, but…”

He grimaced slightly in fear and his mouth tightened.

“If we don’t get there soon, Storm’s in some serious danger.”

*

He really did not think this through properly.

The desert heat, combined with the fact he was covered for the most part in a thick coat of fur, was not really doing any wonders for Storm’s current state; he had probably only been out of the town for about twenty minutes and was already feeling on the verge of collapse. He continued, still, to trudge forward, his hooves dragging in the sand and his tail limp, as he looked around and sighed weakly.

“Everything…friggin’…looks the same.” He looked up toward the sun and winced a bit at its intensity, before falling on his knees and struggling to breathe. His entire body was shuddering despite the heat. “Ugh…no. This isn’t going to work. I should have…probably just…”

He lowered his head, attempting to regain his strength; at that moment the ground beneath him shuddered, as if in response to his weakness. His gaze shifted down, befuddled, and he looked around to the best of his ability. “What the…what was…”

The sands shifted again underneath his feet and he attempted to get up; he was thrown forward immediately as an enormous entity emerged from beneath the ground, the sand surging around its tube-like body as it surfaced and gave an earsplitting screech to indicate its presence. Storm rolled over and landed on his side, shaking his head and looking up at what had just appeared:

The thing looked like a mix between some sort of crustacean and a wyrm; it was very snake-like in appearance but had a thick sort of exoskeleton and shrimp-like tendrils covering the sides of its body, wriggling in the dry air as they aided in its emergence. The head…the head was the most terrifying part, however. The thing had absolutely no eyes, or at least not ones that were noticeable, and most if not all of the end of its body consisted of a gaping maw of teeth and tusks. There were at least four sets of tusks aligning the thing’s craw, if not more, and behind those were multiple rows of teeth that looked like they could cut glass. Yellow-green mucus and saliva dripped from the interior of its mouth; no doubt the mucus was the only thing keeping its mouth from drying out, as it didn’t seem able to properly shut it.

“Oh, GODS…”

The thing emitted another screech before its head loomed in Storm’s direction; it paused for a moment as the goat-creature struggled to get to his feet but the most he could do was manage to pull himself up onto all fours. Catching both his scent and the fact that he was weakened, the leviathan of a monster saw an easy meal and its maw dribbled with anticipation before roaring and lunging its head down toward him.

Despite the fact he was, in fact, weakened, Storm refused to allow himself to go down like this; he forced himself to dive to the side as the thing’s enormous, gaping chasm of a mouth crashed down beside him, narrowly missing his tail and hitting the sand instead. The goat-beast rolled into a front-flip due to the inertia and landed on his front, but didn’t have a lot of time to catch himself, as the monster was obviously irritated at the fact he was attempting to fight back and was already shaking the sand out of its mouth as it prepared to lunge again.

Storm managed to roll into another dodge but he was running very low on physical strength, and it was getting harder and harder just to move, let alone drag air into his lungs. His entire body flared up with heat and his legs gave out, causing him to collapse onto his side into the sand. He dragged in another ragged breath before his blue gaze shot up in the monster’s direction; it had its full attention on him now and was preparing to devour its prey once and for all. It gave a low, guttural rattling sound from deep within its throat as it loomed over him, and the goat-creature winced and shut his eyes, preparing for impact.

This is how I die…and so soon, too…

The blackness descended.

D-damn it…

“STORM!!!”

Capper cried out the goat-creature’s name—well, nickname, he supposed—as he finally caught up, racing over the sand at top speed. Without hesitating, he set Grubber down out of harm’s way and, as the surprised little hedgehog looked on, reached for the daggers he had pocketed earlier. His eyes narrowed and he gripped one in each paw, unsheathing them and bundling up his hind legs for a leap. He was terrified, as he had never really done hand-to-hand combat in awhile, let alone against something this big…

But…

Don’t be afraid.

Her voice rang an echo through the young Abyssinian’s heart, and this seemed to strengthen his resolve; emitting a loud, angry roar, he sprang upward in the monster’s direction, managing to gain enough momentum from his leap to reach the middle of the thing’s back. As if it were something he had done for years on end, he swung one of the daggers forward in a sideways arc, hoping and praying that it would strike home—

“GAH!”

A large amount of a dark-green substance splashed across his face and he choked slightly, almost falling backward but managing to land on the monster’s looming back…it took him a moment to realize that it was, in fact, blood. Wiping the stuff out of his eyes and looking down, he could see that the weapon had, miraculously, managed to slice into the thing’s exoskeleton, leaving an intricate slit in its side. Blood sprayed from the wound like he had punctured a firehose, and the monster gave a loud scream of pain and writhed as the effect took hold. Capper sprang again, flipping backward and landing on his feet in the sand as the leviathan turned to face him, roaring in pure rage. His heart was pounding so hard in his chest that he felt it might burst out, but, despite all this…he couldn’t help but grin.

“Yeah, fight me!” The words rang out before he even was fully aware of the current situation. “I’m a WHOLE lot tastier!!”

The monster practically screamed at him and lunged downward, the first set of teeth within its maw unlocking as it closed in on the young cat-being. Capper’s eyes narrowed and he brought both daggers upward again, in a crossed-arm position, before unleashing them in a crisscross pattern upon the interior of the thing’s mouth. Again, to his fascination, the blades struck through the thing’s flesh as it were like cutting a piece of lukewarm butter…the blows left a pair of wounds this time, one on either side of the creature’s apparent cheek flesh. The thing roared again in Capper’s ears and coughed; it withdrew its attack and reared upward, gurgling as again, blood filled its mouth and began to drip frothily from its bottom “lip.”

“Ugh…” Capper rubbed at one ear; he felt as if his eardrums had just been physically assaulted. He shook his head and looked up as the monster quivered slightly and recoiled in pain, and for a brief, gleaming moment in time, he thought it would just give up and flee. But no, this was a territorial beast, and it was not about to sacrifice its home turf over one small creature’s meddling. Looming towards him, it growled, blood still gurgling in its throat, and prepared for one final strike.

This is it.

A strange aura, almost like a presence of some sort, surrounded the cat-being then; he felt it to the core of his very soul, but for some reason he welcomed it. A strange, green energy, almost like a faint glow, emanated from both blades, and his eyes lit in response to it, almost like…

Almost like the blades were…reacting to him, in a way.

That was impossible though, he thought. He had literally just grabbed the first pair of blades he could find that were appealing. There was no way that they could possibly—

“Capper, look out!!”

Grubber’s cry of alarm pierced his thoughts like an arrow, and he looked up in time to see the guttural interior of the creature’s maw as it crashed down upon him; blood, saliva and mucus all simultaneously splashed onto his body as the monster drew up its fleshy tongue and attempted to swallow its new prey. He grunted in discomfort and almost fell forward down the creature’s gullet; this is what he got for not paying attention for ONE second…

It was NOT going down like this. Not in a million years. Capper growled and swung the blades he was still holding upward, piercing the roof of the monster’s mouth, and twisted them to the side sharply, just so he was positive the beast could feel his determination. Another screech erupted from the vocal cords of the monster and seared his eardrums, but he would not fall that easily this time. Flattening both ears against his skull, he pulled the blades out of the roof of its mouth and felt himself falling as the thing spat him out.

“UGH!” He fell onto his backside on the sand, winded for a brief moment, as a typhoon of blood and saliva rained down upon him; he shook his head and wiped the gunk out of his eyes yet again as the Sand Kraken attempted to attack him again but, it was no use…the monster was bleeding out, and the more of the dark-green substance it lost, the weaker it became. It began to sway back and forth like a charmed cobra, gurgling weakly; Capper ran to the side quickly—

It was over. With a deafening THOOM, the monster’s strength gave out and it fell, curling into a heap upon the sand as the last of its available fluids flowed from its mouth into a small pool, which was quickly absorbed by the heat. The cat-being eyed it, making sure it was dead, before giving a loud gasp of relief and exhaustion and falling forward. He heard the pattering across the sand as Grubber ran to his side, attempting to help him up.

“Are you okay?” The little hedgehog seemed worried; he wrapped Capper’s arm around his own shoulder and attempted to haul him up, but he was only so tall. “Geez that was scary. You weren’t kidding when you said there was a monster out here, huh?”

“Yeah, well…it’s dead now.” Capper sputtered for breath, as he placed a paw upon Grubber’s side and struggled to his feet. “Good gods…that was disgusting. I’m gonna need like, three or more showers after all this.” He attempted to run his paws down his jacket in an attempt to get the gunk the monster had showered upon him off, but, it was no use. The stuff was in there good. Flicking his paws to get the substance off, he shook his head and looked over at where the original objective was currently lying.

“Grubber…Storm…is Storm all right?”

The hedgehog nodded and scurried over to the currently-unconscious goat-creature’s side. “He’s okay, I think. His body temp is like, off the charts though.” He looked at Capper with slight worry. “We should really start to head back and get him some attention…he might have heat stroke.”

“I have no doubt in my mind he does.” Capper placed a hand upon Storm’s cheek; it was searing-hot to the touch and he could sense a severe lack of moisture. “Gods, he’s in bad shape…we gotta get him back into town, or at least get him some water.”

Grubber nodded in agreement, and Capper wrapped an arm around Storm’s body and hauled him upright, leaning the sheer amount of dead weight on his shoulder as he began to trudge back in the direction of town. “C’mon. Hopefully he can hold out a little bit longer. It’s a bit of a trek back, but, we’re gonna make it.”

Author's Note:

Random note; so, I'm not gonna lie, I cried like a bitch while writing Grubber's part of this chapter.

That is all. : P