Everywhere the Light Touches

[Narrator]

Ennio ran into the undergrowth, startling and spooking some of those green fuzzy animals from before as he darted through.

The undergrowth was thick, and Ennio was leaving a pretty obvious trail as he scampered through. At the very least, the tribe probably knew this forest inside and out, and there may be traps and things up ahead. He was going to have to come up with some way for them not to fairly instantly track him.

[Toshiro Narumi]

Ennio jetted himself up to a branch and began hopping animal-like from tree to tree.

[Null]

Just in time, too, as one of the animals ahead of him got caught in a snare, and flung up into the trees, tightly bound and squirming.

The forest was apparently littered with traps.


From his vantage point, he could just barely make out the clearing, where Will was standing atop of a stump, riling up his tribe. The drumming had started again, and they were being passed out spears and other sharp, nasty looking implements.

...It was all in his mind, right? They couldn't...really hurt him?

[Toshiro Narumi]

Ennio wasn't going to take any chances with the assorted pointy things. He resumed moving through the canopy, sticking to the larger branches. The last thing he needed was for one to break or even creak under him.

[Narrator]

His head start apparently up, he could see the tribe disappearing into the woods after him. Several took to the air, spouting Raven's wings as they tried to zero in on his location. Others stuck their noses to the ground, tracking his scent as he moved through the underbrush.

They were, at least, splitting up. Keeping moving wasn't the worst idea, though he could also try to find a place to hide...or go on the offense. Will himself might be really hard to take down, but maybe his tribesmen were less so.

[Toshiro Narumi]

Ennio kept moving, searching for a body of water.

[Narrator]

He would find one! It was a bit brackish and swampy, but it was water notwithstanding. Lillypads and everything in the middle; a good base of operations.


In the middle of the lake, next to one of the lillypads, a small tube popped up, spitting out a box of bonbons onto one of the floating pads. Hey, he knew where that had come from!

[Toshiro Narumi]

Ennio skittered down to the shoreline and shuddered before diving in. He swam out to the lilypad to acquire the package, hoping JerkassWill didn't have a pet alligator.

[Narrator]

There was certainly animal life in here, but no alligators -- looked more like game fish; salmon and trout and things like that, all vaguely green.

That meant Ennio could get his bonbons without too much of an effort.

[Toshiro Narumi]

Ennio dried himself before grabbing the bonbons and using his powers to simply walk on water to the treeline.

[Narrator]

As he was walking back, an arrow whizzed over his head. He had been located!

[Toshiro Narumi]

He dashed through a hollow log and again into the undergrowth. He attempted to adventure game inventory the hindering box as he ran.

[Narrator]

That didn't quite work -- wrong side of Will's head -- so he ended up having to drag the box along with him. That was going to slow him down some, and footfalls and war whoops were coming closer.

He didn't want to become a trophy!

[Toshiro Narumi]

He gnawed a length of vine from a tree and used to tie the box to himself like a backpack. He then made his way back into the canopy and did what JerkWill likely didn't expect; he headed for the clearing.

[Narrator]

Doubling back on himself? That WAS an interesting strategy; especially if Jerkass!Will had sent everyone after him.

Ennio was able to scamper at ground level faster than some of the others were able to make it through the thick brush, if he chose his path right. They were relentless chasing after him, though it looks like their main strategy was to wait for him to tire himself out. You know, like a dumb animal.

Ennio wasn't a dumb animal. Mostly, anyway.


There was one tribesman still in the clearing, tending to the fire and preparing some vegetables for roasting. A bit presumptuous of them, I suppose.

[Toshiro Narumi]

Ennio was a very clever animal, thank you very much. As such, he crafted a sling with which to throw a distracting rock. Then he'd run in and sweeten the pot.

[Narrator]

The one remaining guard got up as the rock clattered; a perfect distraction for Ennio to slip up and add some bonbons to the bubbling stew. It turned from a clear color to a brighter, pink color -- very much a result of adding something from the Other Will to This Will's pot -- but with a few pushes and taps, he could bury the bonbons underneath some of the other tasty things cooking; maybe it wouldn't be immediately noticeable.

Now he had to figure out a way for Will to EAT from it, but first thing's first -- the guy in the clearing is about to turn around...

[Toshiro Narumi]

With no time for a getaway, Ennio picked up a rock and used the sling to launch it at the back of the guy's head. Surely that couldn't hurt Will... much.

[Narrator]

Thunk! Ennio's aim was true, and the guard went down! Hell of a shot, ferrettboy.


The underbrush rustled as the people who had been on his trail approached, arrows whizzing out of the wood towards his location.

[Toshiro Narumi]

Ennio grinned and tried another of the theoretical techniques that he believed would work in the real world. He summoned a shield bubble of rapidly swirling water to deflect the arrows as he ran.

[Null]

Hey, it seemed to work, at least in here. The arrows bounced off the shield of water -- was that because he was really good at it, or just because he thought it would work? Telepathic dynamics are always a nasty thing to try to work out, but it worked here, at least.


And that's when Will himself came out of the underbrush, directly in Ennio's path. He had doubled around! The sneaky bastard!

[Toshiro Narumi]

Ennio came up short, skidding to a stop and dropping his shield.

With a resigned but somehow still cocky smirk, he tipped his hat and said, "I reckon you've beat me Gumby. Looks like this ol' polecat is done for. But preparin' to cook me ought to take a while and that there stew smells mighty fine, so can I at least be allowed the dignity of a last meal shared with an honorable foe? I can be the next stew just as easy."

[Null]

"Tie him up," Will said to two of the other tribesmen. "Tie him to the spit, and prepare the knives."

He looked Ennio straight in the eye. "We'll feast well, tonight."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"W-why you no good dirty scoundrel!" Ennio said with a quiver of fear, "I surrendered peaceably! You can't just truss me up like a pig!"

[Null]

Two of the tribesmen tied knots around Ennio's arms and legs.

"More fool you. The deal was survive for two hours, and I'd go with you. You barely lasted 30 minutes. It wasn't much of a hunt, now was it? The fact that you surrendered so easily means you know, deep down inside, that you're just prey.

Maybe you'll have better luck next time."

[Toshiro Narumi]

He spat in JerkWill's face. "I hope you choke on it ya heartless golem."

[Narrator]

"Tough and stringy. Slow-roasting might be the only way to make you palatable."

Ennio was tied to a spit, and lowered over the fire, rotating as one of the tribesmen spun the stick. It didn't hurt as much as one would expect -- whether that was because it was a mindscape and thus not real, or because Will was a kinky motherfucker was a question for the philosophers, and not your humble narrator.

Smirking, Will went over to the stewpot, and stirred it a couple times, raising an eyebrow slightly at it and sniffing.

[Toshiro Narumi]

Ennio was immensely grateful that he wasn't in searing mental agony. However, that didn't stop him from squirming and hollering and generally acting as if he was while, in not-actually-reality, he was watching Will in the secret hope that the clay boy would have a pre-meal snack.

[Null]

Apparently amused by his squirming, Will dipped a ladle into the pot and took a big sip...and then froze in place, blinking for a long moment.

[Toshiro Narumi]

Ennio secretly smirked; all was going according to plan... well, almost anyway.

[Null]

Will coughed once, twice, blinking as he stood woozily, leaning up heavily against the hot pot, sending sizzling sounds through the air.

Pantsless people probably shouldn't brush up against cooking implements in use.

"What did you...what was..." he said, disoriented.

[Toshiro Narumi]

"Just a little reminder that compassion ain't weakness. That hot iron must be bathed in cool water to forge anything but a useless lump."

[Null]

"Call me a lump, will you?" Will said, his eyes flaming as he strode, shaking, over to the Rotisserie Ennio. "I should....I should....I should..."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"Stop bein' the angry Tin Man and let me go?" he ventured.

[Null]

Angrily, he swiped at the spit, knocking Ennio off and away from the fire, before sulking and sitting down himself, putting his head in his hands.

[Toshiro Narumi]

Still tied up, Ennio said apologetically, "Sorry Gumby. I know you must be hurtin', but it was the only way I could think to knock some sense into you."

[Null]

"I'm going to be tasting this for weeks," he grimaced.

"Compassion. My ass. You know what compassion has gotten me in the past? Nothing but pain.

I should stir fry you for this," he grumbled, but made no actual attacking moves.

[Toshiro Narumi]

"Nothin' but pain? You honestly think yer compassionate side played no part in you havin' a wife and child who love you? If so, then yer an idgit."

[Null]

"My compassion has gotten me tortured, twisted inside out, demolished and actually, factually killed, so maybe you should shut your yap," he grumbled into the dirt.

[Toshiro Narumi]

"And how many has yer compassion spared that fate? Mine certainly saved you from one grisly end."