22. Very well done

"So, does that mean we are just going to leave them behind?" Blaze asked, looking upstream with unease.

Behind him, on a shore, Floreo made a fire to grill that big fish he caught. Jone and Echo were spreading their things around on the beach to dry it out, while Cid and Ivory struggled to drag parts of the raft out of the water.

"Come help us" Cid said unperturbed "Or you volunteer to be the one explaining to Yax why it's not fixed by the time he catches up."

Blaze reluctantly turned and went to grab one of the logs that started to float downstream as raft lost most of its ropes. He picked the log up and carried it out of water, then went back to grab one more.

Ivory just left it to him and Cid, and went to help Floreo with grilling their food. They had enough fish meat now to do some experiments. Last night they found that boiling is easier than grilling, but it's slow.

On the shore, Jone was preparing to spread another tent canvas when he noticed Echo just standing there, staring at Blaze. "What's troubling you?" He asked while handing him one side of canvas.

Echo took it and as they pulled it wide to dry faster, asked quietly "If he is able to do all that, why is he usually so.." he did not know how to put it exactly. Blaze usually acted completely different than today. Few days back, he helped him heating meals instead watching that snake being prepped for grilling. And last night, he didn't want to have anything with cleaning fish. Echo asumed he was squeamish about blood.

Today, when that fish smashed into their raft so hard that it dislodged Mani into water, Blaze just leaned to the side, grabbed it for the gills and pulled out of water. He basically tore that fish's head off using his bare hands. And we are talking about almost four meters long monster fish, Ivory said it's called sturgeon.

Now, he just picked that 10 meters long log like it's a toothpick. Hard to imagine him screaming while facing a rabbit.. And yet, he did just that. So inconsistent.

Jone just smiled. "Does it confuse you?" He also looked at Blaze who already pulled all the logs to the shore. Cid was explaining what he wanted to modify, and Blaze stood there nodding.

"He is just a guy who has no filter. If he wants to know something, he will ask. If he does not like something, he will avoid it. He acts and reacts in line to his feelings, zero posing." Jone shook his head and went to spread the last canvas.

"He is aware of his strength or rather, how much stronger he is than others, like me or you. So if we are in danger, he will not think of himself, but will do what's needed to protect us first." But, if there's no imminent threat, he will just follow whatever silly idea that pops in his head. Jone knew him for so long, that he got used to his switch going on and off randomly.

By the fire, Floreo suddenly looked up at his twin. He tilted his head and followed Echo's line of sight. Then he stared at Blaze for a bit as well. In the end, he shrugged and continued to smear pieces of fish with different plants. He and Ivory were testing different herbs as spices to try making fish more tasty.

He heard once that in the past, there was this magical spice that looked like tiny white crystals, called salt. But supplies of it were spent so long ago, that it was just a figure of speech left 'all is better with a pinch of salt'. When Geb and Hama prepared their food at the station, they were adding some mix from their lab. None was taken to this trip though. No one thought about packing it.

Unaware of all the attention he got, Blaze worked with Cid to make notches on the logs deeper. Then they used lasers to make holes through main floaters and connector beams. Next step was to hammer wooden pegs through those holes, to make whole thing more sturdy. He felt his carpentry skills go up, and quite liked it. He always liked to tinker, but never before used raw wood like this.

As they worked, sun slowly made its way over their heads, their stuff dried, and Jone and Echo started to pack it up again. Then they stopped and looked around. "Should we just make a camp here and wait for Yax and Mani?" Jone asked and everyone looked at Cid.

Cid looked at the sky, then at the river, and lastly at pieces of fish roasting on embers. "Let's just stay here tonight. It's getting late anyway."

They still moved a bit further from water, and made tents by the edge of the forest. They put up all the tents, but Cid took his bag and joined Ivory for the night. Just in case.

Meanwhile, Ivory and Floreo served different kinds of grilled fish and Echo brought out boiled fish he prepared. They sat around in a circle and first carefully observed outside appearance of this experimental meal. Not burned this time, skill upgrade acquired.

Ivory decided to lead by example, and sampled a piece. It was a bit dry outside, but inner parts were not bad.

He gave his judgement "Better than yesterday." Floreo then took another piece, and rest followed. Echo still chose his boiled version, and Blaze as well. Grilled ones had that smoked aroma and it will take some time to adapt to it.

"I think we forgot something." Jone said while nibbling on a medium done fish fillet.

Cid glanced around, but could not notice anything amiss. Tents were orderly, luggage neat, raft drying on the shore. "Looks fine to me, we can continue downstream in the morning."

"We will not going to check on Yax and Mani?" Blaze did not really like the idea of just moving on.

"We have a mission." Cid said "If they are alive, they will catch up. If not, there's not much use to go and search for dead bodies." There was nothing special about a dead person. Unlike this youngsters, he saw plenty of them. Nature will take care of their recycling on its own.

Sitting next to Blaze, Echo refiled his bowl with fish soup. "Mani did carry the Head of the Great Serpent on him." He blew over his spoon to cool down hot liquid "Without it, even if we manage to find location, we will not be able to enter the temple and start relocation protocol."

Cid looked at Ivory. They stared at each other wordlessly while others paid them no mind and continued eating. Some of the grilled pieces were actually quite good. Floreo focused to memorize which are the best, so he could use that way of grilling in the future.

"Well, it's still daylight." Ivory said eventually "We can go check upstream if there is a way to go down that waterfall without falling."

Cid was about to agree, but then he heard snapping of branches and rustling coming from behind them. They all moved fast, leaving food down and picking up their swords and lasers while assuming defensive formation.

Then they relaxed, as they saw Yax pushing through bushes, with Mani behind him in tow.

"Is that grilled fish?" Was first thing Yax said to them "Smells great, could smell it from all the way down. Would pass just by otherwise." He sat down on emptied spot and picked up a piece "Expected you to be further ahead by now."

Ivory did not know should he get angry at his fish being commandeered so matter-of-factly or just be happy about both of them being all right. He decided to go with being relieved.

"Raft got too damaged and we had to fix it." Cid said flatly.

"And that fish Blaze killed was too big to take with us raw, so decided to eat as much we could and find a way to preserve it." Ivory added.

"Most of luggage got wet so had to be dried and checked for damages." Jone finished their report.

"And what happened to you two?" Blaze asked while pulling Mani to sit down with him and choosing tastier looking pieces for him to try.

Everyone gradually sat down as well and listened shortened version of events: falling, tumbling, drying then moving on.

They ate as much they could, there were a lot of strips of fish still by the fire being more smoked than grilled. Floreo took Echo with him to gather large leaves to use as smoked meat packaging. There were some wild plants looking like grapevine in their gardens back home. And he needed to grill his twin for a bit.

Cid took Yax to show him how they upgraded the raft, while Jone insisted to check Mani for injuries. He made him drink concoction for enhancing blood flow to reduce swelling of his bruises. Mani drank it, of course, but also asked for one more dosage. 'For later' he said, and Jone understood.

Soon it got dark, and they went to rest. Cid then remembered that his bed was in Ivory's tent.

"I am going to move back" he said, but Yax stopped him "Don't bother, it's fine for tonight."

He looked at Mani, who got it and replied "Yes, no problem."