Key To My Heart || Slugterra

10| The Infurnus

"Burpy? Why are you here?"

He looked up at me haltingly and let out a soft whimper. His huddled, laying body was shivering, and he was covered in tiny scratches. I held out a hand at him with concern and care. He struggled slightly as he stood up and climbed onto my palm. His big orange eyes met mine, before they glanced over my shoulder where Cobra was still battling the crab-legged creature.

"Hey bud, I don't like to force slugs into doing things for me and I know you're not in your best condition to be megamorphing..."

I mumbled to Burpy as I glanced over at Cobra. She fought to stay strong, but her effects were noticeably wearing off. I turned back to Burpy and shot him a determined look. "... but I really need your help right now, given the current circumstances."

He gave me a weak but confident smile and nodded softly. I allowed him to get into one of the blue canisters on my bandoleer and I loaded him up, aiming him at the recovering snail creature.

I narrowed my eyes and tilted my head, my index finger hovering just above the trigger.

Firing an Infurnus at it wouldn't help to get rid of him. This shot must somehow trap him.

My gaze landed on the rocky chasm walls above the struggling creature and I switched my aim them. I pulled the trigger and Burpy velocimorphed before he megamorphed. Even with his injuries, he managed to create a sphere of fire with his wings and he launched it. The fire sphere rammed into the right wall and ricocheted off to strike the left wall, sending massive fragmented stones and soils to collapse onto the creature.

"Good job Burpy!" I yelled, and smiled as the creature was pinned down by the ruins. I could see from the thick, dusty air, Burpy's trailing orange flames turned blue as it circled the new pile of debris he caused when suddenly, he started to charge towards me. I gulped at his sudden change in motion, my body automatically took a few steps backwards.

"Umm... Burpy?" I tried to call for him, but he ignored me. He was getting dangerously close to me without declining acceleration. My eyes squeezed shut and I held out my arms in front of my face defensively, ready to endure the painful impact.

On the spur of the moment, Burpy flew into my arms, hooking them on his neck, and soared vertically upwards towards the cliff. Disregarding the rapid accelerating pain on my injured shoulder, I held onto the slug desperately, keeping my eyes fixed on the promising land above us. It felt like even if I relax my biceps for a millisecond, I would have fallen to my death.

The flight was unstable, with Burpy whimpering occasionally. And just when things couldn't get any worse, halfway through our journey to safety his blue flames were beginning to flicker, and he shook his head to keep himself conscious.

"Come on, just a little more..." I mumbled to both Burpy and myself, biting my lips at the almost unbearable torture on my arm. Looking up at the cliff, it was only a few feet away.

Five feet, four feet, three, two...

A moan escaped my lips as Burpy soared outwards, passing through the cliff. He immediately returned to photoform, sending my body plummeting harshly on the ground. I rested my eyes, my body relaxed. Never in my life had I appreciated being able to lay on literal grass before. I laid on my back and tilted my head to my right. I was utterly disgusted by my worsen, bleeding wound. Blood flowing out, and I could see a little bit of... never mind.

Now that Tad's goons were gone, I finally realised how worn out my body was. Every inch of my body was screaming in pain, and would be extremely grateful if I could just lay in bed and sleep for the rest of the week.

I winced as I forced myself to sit up, searching the area for the Infurnus.

Laying right beside me, the crouching slug was panting heavily. There were new yellow and white markings on his body, but his orange was fainter than before. His eyes were closed, with tiny bags under them. My heart sunken as he winced in pain and curled tighter into a ball, keeping himself warm. I picked him up in my palm and gently stroke his head.