I rested a bit as Quatal and Cosmael prepared lunch, Bell was trying to feign disinterest but my girls cooked like me, so the act was scarcely even perceptible. It was clear she was happy, and had been, eating things in their natural state, but the aroma she was experiencing was almost narcotic.
Eve was sat with me, stroking my hair and insisting on nursing me over my mild fatigue. "You know I'm not dying right, I can feed and water myself just fine."
"Until I have a baby to baby, the closest family member gets it, so if you don't like it you best give me one soon." I couldn't help but notice there seemed to be some kind of hunger or desire that was growing in her that nothing was sating.
Divinity was leaking from her to an increasing degree with every day and I had done my all to satisfy everything I could. She was getting plenty of rest, plenty of every kind of food and drink and, I hoped, plenty of sex, because if she wasn't she simply had more of an appetite than I could handle.
The only desire I knew went un-sated was maternal and I hoped it wasn't that because she was growing more overbearing with the increased divine leakage and I was not ready to be coddled for the foreseeable future and even the girls could only keep her occupied so long before absolute will and stray thoughts put them in danger.
"Bell, time to talk about those two women." By The Black I hoped it was them, the desire to kill them I could manage. "Were they a human and a demon?"
"Yes, how did you know? I think they said their names were Sil and Sinfree."
"Would you mind if I looked into your memories of them?"
"I suppose, as long as it doesn't hurt or damage my vines."
I walked over, surprised that Eve still cared enough about coddling me to sulk, then produced the memory orb I needed. The memories were unclear, disorderly and clearly altered, but how? Altering memories should be impossible.
Memory was a lot like water, fluid with no set shape or form, they expanded contracted, distorted, became dull, then bloomed into vibrancy. It was easy to tell these had been changed, she was mocking me with how overt it was. Her and Sinfree skipping hand-in-hand into the woods, giving her strawberry cheesecake, then making flower chains.
"Where's your flower chain?"
"My what? I don't know what that is, sounds both pretty and terrifying." I laughed then told her to look at her own memory. "None of that happened, I take it back though, the flower chains are just pretty, not terrifying. They also never gave me that yummy looking food."
"Of course they didn't, I haven't made it in this world yet and I doubt she knows how to conjure things like I do. Still, it seems that your memories weren't altered they simply placed something on you that interferes with my memory magic. I'm glad they didn't toy with your mind Bell." I reached down and hugged her, apparently the idea of toying with minds was a trigger for me.
"Oh... I see, thank you... I never asked to be comforted... It i- Thank you, this is nice." Bell sank into the embrace, clearly the first time anyone had ever held her since she was born...
Look I'm not proud of throwing her under the maternal, brooding bus that was Eve at that moment in time, but she had unmet emotional needs and she had unmet emotional needs. It was a win-win and I maintain my innocence.
I picked her up and took her over for Eve to pamper, surprisingly she was out cold by the time food was ready and we had to gently nudge her awake, though Eve insisted on feeding her which was when the weirdness started.
As we ate, Cosmael, Quatal and I watched in awkward horror as Eve alternated between feeding herself and Bell, who was to ignorant about common behaviour to know how weird Eve was being.
"What's wrong with Mum?"
"I think she really needs a baby."
"Is Mama gonna be okay?"
"If she gets a baby."
The girls looked at me with deadly seriousness. "You need to give her a baby."
"Little One, don't forget, you will be one of those babies, you sure you want this?"
"As me, no. As a baby, meh, I don't know, probably?"
I massaged my temples a bit. "Look, I did all I could... Either she got pregnant or we deal with this until next month."
I gestured for everyone to eat quickly, reminding Eve that we had to kill the Crackling Jabber before nightfall. She was a lot of things, things I am not brave enough to list here, things I loved, yes, but questionable things nonetheless... She was not a fool though and still, just barely, had the sanity to know sleeping in a highly aggressive lightening elements territory was not a smart decision.
We marched through the woodland following Bell's directions, which made us glad we found her, as finding the damn thing would have been far more difficult than we anticipated.
Finally we came to a canyon, one which formed a tight path through the mountains. "Damn, this thing is gonna have the home field advantage big time. No choice, everyone bundle up I'm caging us in."
"You're trapping us? Won't that make us easy targets?"
"I said caging not trapping. A Faraday cage will draw in electrical attacks and nulify them, just don't touch it, then we're all fried."
"What's a Faraday cage?"
"Bell, don't bother, Papa's really old, he might not even remember."
"Quatal, did I do something to upset you lately? You're being quite mean to Papa recently."
"Papa, if you have to ask, you aren't sorry."
"Papa is beginning to think he is too soft on you Quatal. When we get home, you get regular chores and more responsibilities."
"I don't think now is the time for that discussion you two. You're both right, now shut up and get ready." I produced the cage and moved it with us after Eve's scolding.
It came from nowhere, a fist larger than any club or war-hammer that smashed against the cage before turning into lightning and disappearing. "No one said anything about it becoming lightning damn it, I'm good but nothing is that fast. Speed of sound, yes, speed of light, no."
"Love, shut up and do something about it." My head fell back lazily to glare at her. "Don't you look at me like that. Stop thinking like a human, start thinking like a god, you shouldn't have used that move earlier."
"Oh, okay, sure. Just disregard what I said about sound speed and light speed, what do I know? Just been around a few billion years, fine..." I stepped through the metal and lightning coursed through me with killing intent.
After a brief moment it arced to the cage before jumping back past me and materialising in the half-monkey, half-tiger we had expected to find. It looked very confused, as did everyone in the cage. Especially when I pulled out my secret weapon, a pair of large thick rubber gloves.
"Ha, I did it... I remembered gloves exist!" It may be petty, but that was a massive personal victory to me and I pulled them on like a boxer challenging his arch-rival.
Did it look cool? No. No it did not.
Did it work? Kinda, but I was still me, which means I forgot a lot of what I was trying to implement.
The fight was as brutal as it was ridiculous, it would lunge in, we would exchange blows, mine break bone, and splitting flesh, the monsters scorching mine and bludgeoning just as much.
My issue was that I could literally only damage it with my rubber covered fists... I was not donning a rubber suit in front of an impressionable young woman. I stepped out with a greater plan, but after being zapped immediately, it slipped my mind.
At the end of the tenth exchange both the creature and I were showing serious wear. "For the love of... What was the blo-." The eleventh exchange began, dozens of blows a second flew, impacts so devastating the strategic few one of us bothered to dodge to try and get an opening resulted in the mountains becoming pockmarked with craters.
Then the monster slipped up, it connected squarely with a crater that I had caused earlier and broke through into a hollow and was crushed by a cave in, not enough to be fatal, but it was enough to remind me of the plan.
"Monkey, you kept me on my toes... making me forget the plan at the start was clever. I remember now though..." Look, I didn't remember and I'm not proud of what happened. "I may not be able to wear a rubber suit, but I can sure as hell conjure one on you."
My brain may have been struggling to heal a lot of internal burns, my body was twitching, mixing that with exhaustion and I was an absolute mess. I watched a lot of shows in eras that had such things, Lightning was always a strong power, but they really had to tone it down to make it beatable.
True to my word, again I'm not proud, I put the monkey in a rubber suit to keep it trapped and whack-able. I soon realised that I had made a mistake however.... There are few things more terrifying than an angry monkey-tiger going berserk in a gimp-suit that rendered it blind, the sight alone made me snap out of the disorientated state the lightning put me in.
That was when I actually remembered the plan was to bring the mountain down, so I guess the plan I used was kind of better, but just not for me as a person.
Regardless, the Crackling Jabber was trapped and physical, so I knew how to end it quickly. I charged in, jumped and after a hefty struggle was able to break its neck with a few solid punches whilst avoiding getting thrown off.
I slipped off and hit the ground, I just wanted rest, but I realised it was still alive. "Honey... Can I... Do something... Stupid?"