Mind vs Matter

[Clownpiece]

Thud

Sticks and leaves crunched as the last charred bandit corpse collapsed. Clownpiece breathed a sigh of relief through the wooden torch clenched in her teeth, and brought her good arm, which had been outstretched to release that last bout of hellfire, up to her face and retrieved her torch. That had been the last of the renegades, and judging by the sounds of battle, or lack thereof, Dane must have finished off the red-coated sniper. Or been finished off.

“You still alive, Dane?” The hell fairy called into the forest, voice echoing through the smoke-filled grove.

“Never better!” Came the response, half-sarcastic, from not too far away. “Is everyone dead over there?”

“All the bandits have fallen to hell!” She answered smugly, starting to float over to where she heard his voice.

“What about the beast?”

“Ah...” she paused midair. She hadn’t paid particular attention to it. “Hang on I’ll find it!” With that said, she started to zip around with as much energy as she could muster up. Fortunately, vibrant white and blue tended to stand out in the middle of a charred forest, and she found the ceramic beast in no time, doing it’s best to huddle and hide in one of the still-intact bushes. “There you are!” Her voice was completely cheerful despite her hellish intentions. Leaves and branches rustled as the creature flinched. It shrunk in on itself, curling its tails protectively around its shattered side, staring up at her with large, yellow eyes, and no teeth. It knew it’s chances at this point.

“Aww, that’s no fair...” The star-spangled girl muttered to herself. It just looked so... lost and terrified and... Sorta like the hellbeasts back at home, now that she thought about it. And also now that she was one that subject, it didn’t seem as though it was like the bandits. Maybe it was just trying to survive, find a meal? “Alright, I’ll take care of you!” She said, her voice becoming muffled halfway through her sentence as she bit down on her torch again. She took another step closer to the bush, and the beast shrank back even more. Then, she pounced, hurling herself forward with all her might. The creature’s remaining claws dug into the dirt and it tensed up, getting ready to flee with everything it had. Clownpiece’s good arm curled around the cool ceramic of its torso before it had even moved a step. Sticks and twigs scratched at her arm as she tore it out of the bush and lifted it into the sky. Despite it being nearly twice her size, and starting to wriggle, she was able to carry it with surprising ease.

“Stop!” she ordered before it wriggled loose from her grasp, and much to her surprise, it did. She actually hadn’t been expecting that to work, but that meant it maybe knew a few orders like that. Maybe it was someone’s pet who got loose? That was a thought for later. Right now, she just needed to get a certain someone on board with her idea...

“Dane!” she cheered as she emerged from the copse, causing Dane’s head to jerk up. Her friend sat, leaning up against a tree, looking a bit like Cerberus just got through mauling him. “Look what I caught!”

“Good for you?” he said after a moment, thoroughly unconcerned and almost questioningly, too busy focusing on healing up his wounds.

“Can we keep it?” she pleaded, slowly lowering to the ground in front of him, the ceramic beast limp in her grasp.

“We?” he lifted an eyebrow at her. “Sure. But if it attacks me, I’m smashing it.”

“Don’t worry! I’ll keep it in line! Somehow. I never trained any hellhounds myself but I remember Master doing it sometimes. I’m sure I’ll do fine~”

China lives. And Clown’s trying to adopt him.