Chapter 219: 4 +1

Jones was ready to deploy, which was a good thing as he was ready to put the work in on behalf of his home tribe, and on behalf of the new shapeshifter friends that Jimmy had recently made.

However, despite their rush, they couldn’t depart just yet, as Jimmy was reminded of one more thing that he had to do.

Eni reminded him when she came out of the home cavern with two elders, and two widowed women following her.

She approached Jimmy, and said, “I got a few people to volunteer, Jimmy.”

“Oh… right.” He nodded, “It’s been a long day, I forgot I asked you to look for elders. Did you catch them up on what they will be doing over the next few moons?”

“Yes,” She nodded, “They’re ready to kick ass. They’re the most violent women I could think of, so they’ll do well down there.”

Jimmy was pleased. He had made a lot of promises to the shapeshifters today, and one of those promises was to bring a couple of volunteers along with Jones, his supposed twin brother.

It was important to have competent people backing his clone up, because as he kept getting reminded of day after day, calamity after calamity, mana was not infinite. If Jones ran out of mana down there in the underworld, he would be a sitting duck, and would likely get slaughtered on the first night!

The shapeshifters would do their best to protect him, sure, but as of today, their forces were spread really thin, and recent events proved that they could barely defend themselves, so Jimmy had thought that it was best for Jones to have some proper backup. People he could really depend on.

Jimmy knew these two elders, as he was filled in on the stories of the prior battle for the grasslands, where a handful of elders had over-performed, and stitched the battle plans together flawlessly.

One of the volunteer elders was Gorka, the ninety-something year old woman who could manipulate gravity, and the other elder was Lama, and she could make people, or creatures in general disappear within dirt, as if the world itself swallowed them. The latter elder hadn’t participated in the last battle for the grasslands, but he was well aware of what she was capable of. Although it was taboo, Nechi had talked his ear off in regards to what each elder was capable of!

As for the two recently widowed women that wanted to tag along, the both of them bore Dinosaur Strength. They were the muscle behind this rag-tag team of four, and would easily dig their team out of trouble if the situation came to it, as mana didn’t run out as easily for them. This was the natural order of things. Physically superior people could easily maintain their superiority.

Jimmy didn’t expect the widows to volunteer, especially since he had only asked for two elders, but Eni made a great call fetching them. These widowed women were sad, they were angry, they were depressed, and likewise, as their magic encourages it, they’d love to blow steam somewhere, and release their frustration, even if it was towards creatures, or in this case, dinosaurs, who had nothing to do with the brutal death of their family.

He was impressed, but he had to brief them once more. He didn’t want them to say anything that they weren’t supposed to around his clone, so he pulled them aside, and talked to them in private.

He repeated, “I know this is weird, ladies, and I thank you that you volunteered under such short notice, but there is something that you have to remember above all other things. We’ll be helping some new friends of ours, yes, but the main thing is that you have to protect Jones, under any means necessary. You should be aware of the fancy stuff we have in that bunker below our home, and that fancy stuff gave me a brother now, a twin brother, and that’s the second thing you need to remember. You need to play along, and address him as my twin brother, or else you’ll be opening a world of trouble that we can’t afford to deal with right now.”

“Relax, kid,” Gorka said, “I’m no moron, I know how to handle a kid. I also know how to lie to a kid, so let’s not waste any more time, and go stomp on some stupid dinosaurs. I don’t have all the time in the world, you know, I’ve lived too many summers already.”

“Right,” He smiled, “Go over there and grab a Compy. Or better yet, have Nechi and Eni ride you down to the river with their own pets. Compies can be slow.”

Eni overheard them talk, but this was hardly a bad thing. She rushed into the home cavern, found Nechi, and dragged her outside. They had less than two hours of sunlight left, and so she’d rather reach the river while it was still light outside.

While she set things up, Jimmy and Jones already departed. Nechi’s parents gave them a ride on their pet QTs.

QTs were known for their speed, be it on the land or up in the air. They were great creatures, dependable in every aspect, and even though they weren’t used to carrying two people at a time, the trip to the river was still relatively short. Since they had the chance to dive from the rocky mountains, all the way towards the grasslands and its river, the QTs reached great speeds without even being winded. They simply glided.

At some point they flew 100 m/ph, or 160 km/h!

They were fast, however, they couldn’t afford to keep that speed forever, because the humans on their back might fall off, for one thing. Jones was relatively new to being in the air, so he wrapped himself around Anna’s father, named Tomus, as if someone was going to tear him off of the QT, and toss him to the ground. Unlike Jimmy, he was not a fan of flying.

Thankfully the ride down to the river wasn’t as long as they expected it to be. They made it to the spot where they first dumped the alien snakes, in just under forty minutes, which meant that they were a few minutes ahead of schedule for once! They had a bit above an hour of sunlight left.

Since they found the shapeshifters waiting there, close to the river, Jimmy basically completed half of the promises he made to them, an hour before the sun was ready to set beyond the horizon. The other half of the promises he made, otherwise known as the other volunteers that were to help Jones, were somewhere along the mountainside, and were making their way down here.

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