A Game of Chi Book III: A Sword of Dust

Chapter 39: Laval V

LAVAL

Laval's Valious clashed with Furtivo's dagger as they made contact. Before the fox could swing his other blade at him, Laval darted out of the way and jabbed his sword forward, only for Furtivo to evade the attack. Furtivo then lunged at Laval, his daggers coming dangerously close to his snout. Grimacing, Laval moved his head aside and used his hand to hit Furtivo's elbow, causing him to drop his dagger. "Not bad, Laval," Furtivo sneered, bending over to pick up his fallen blade. "I guess these monkeys taught you something after all."

"You want to see what they taught me?" Laval demanded. "Here it is." Laval moved away from Furtivo, towards a nearby tree, and began scaling its massive trunk. "What, running away?" Furtivo asked incredulously. "I guess they really were just stupid pacifists after all." Laval reached a thick branch and peered down at the ground, pushing aside some leaves. He could see the crocodiles spreading out, lighting anything and everything on fire. The orange flames were quickly consuming any plants in their path, setting the forest ablaze. I have to stop them as fast as I can, Laval thought. He looked back down at Furtivo, who was looking up at the tree. "I'm not running from you, Furty!" Laval hollered back. "I'm staying right up here, where I'm comfortable. But if the great bounty hunter Furtivo can't climb trees, I guess that's the end of this here and now."

Satisfied with the fox' snarl, Laval watched as the fox flipped his daggers so that their points were facing down and stabbed them into the tree, grumbling as he tried to climb. "You'll regret climbing up there, Laval," he warned, grimacing as he made little progress. "You're the one who'll regret it, Furty," Laval retorted. He got off the branch and moved just above Furty before kicking one of his hands loose. "Damn you!" Furtivo shouted as Laval kicked the other one, causing the fox to fall back to the ground. With a roar, Furtivo hurled one of his daggers at Laval, who quickly moved to dodge the blade. The dagger bounced harmlessly off the tree, and Furtivo ran to retrieve it. "You think I can't get you up there?" he demanded. Furtivo made his way to the nearest tree and began climbing it in the same way, so Laval leapt from his branch to the another's, preparing to kick Furtivo off once more. "No you don't!" Laval exclaimed, kicking the fox to the ground. Furtivo growled in frustration, glaring up at Laval. "Fine. You won't come down and face me properly? I'll burn this entire damn forest down until you do!" Furtivo walked off and grabbed a torch from a nearby crocodile, swinging it around to spread the flames. Shit, Laval thought. As he was about to make his way back down to the ground, he felt a hand on his shoulder. What? He whipped around to see Gelsi shaking her head. "Don't go down there, Laval," she warned. "We can handle the fires." As if on cue, water suddenly dropped from the nearby trees, dousing many of the flames instantly. "What?" Furtivo snarled, looking up. Laval could just see many gorillas in the trees, holding now-empty buckets. "G'loona gave us the message and we're here to help." More gorillas came towards them, with water sloshing in their buckets. Laval was in awe as they expertly swung from branch to branch, throwing water on the flames to put them out. Some of the crocodiles who tried to stop them were summarily knocked unconscious by the gorillas' sleeping darts and dragged away, while others were plucked from the ground by gorillas swinging from vines. Laval spotted Glorya among the gorillas, although she didn't have a bucket nor a dart pipe in her hands. She's going to fight, Laval thought. But can she win?

Glorya landed on a newly doused patch of grass between the trees and unslung her hammer, twirling it menacingly at Furtivo and the crocodiles. "Spread out and stop the fires!" Glorya yelled at the other gorillas. "This one is mine."

"You can't swing like we can," Gelsi said to Laval, "so stay up here. That fox is after you, so we'll protect you."

"Why?" Laval asked, looking worriedly at Glorya. "I just came here a week ago, and you're willing to put yourselves at risk to protect me?" Gelsi nodded immediately, as if it was a reflex. "Of course! We won't let you get hurt." Before Laval could pry further, Gelsi swung off, no doubt to get a bucket. I won't let them die for me, Laval thought determinedly, but he noticed that so far, no one on either side had been killed. The gorillas were too hard to spot, let alone hit, amongst the trees, and a few crocodiles were merely unconscious, not killed. Turning his attention back to Glorya, Laval saw that she had just slammed a crocodile into a nearby tree, knocking him out cold. "Get your fire out of our forest!" she bellowed, evading the blow of another crocodile and kneeing him in the stomach before pushing him aside. "Idiots!" Furtivo shouted. "I'll handle this monkey myself. Spread out and burn this place to the ground!"