Dancing In The Desert: Chap. 4

Dancing In The Desert

Chapter 4:

One of the strangest creatures they'd seen yet had just stepped into the firelight, throwing its details into sharp relief.
"What the f-" Luska muttered.
"It talked," said Lil weakly.
It was some sort of crossbreed, no more than two feet tall on its back legs, which, like its hands, had three long sharp claws sticking out from them. Its features, arranged into a lazy smirk almost, were strangely cute with black surrounding its eyes. The fur was sleek and brown, if not rather scruffy, dirty and giving off a faint pong to add to the already musty scent in the air, and it dragged itself forward at an unhurried pace, putting it mildly.
"Taboo," Mama June repeated, seemingly unphased by the manky animal at her feet. "Where did you put that file full of old black magic notes?"
Taboo yawned loudly and scratched its rear with its clawed paw.  Dude..." it droned, " ...slow down with all the questions..."
Frazer exchanged bemused glances with Logan, who shrugged back. He had never seen the creature before.
"I think..." it continued, trudging over to a pile of dirty rags under the table, its oversized arms dragging across the floor as it went, "I left it here..."
It then began to rummage through the material, tossing shreds of it aside, until it finally revealed a large, black leather book coated in dust.
"Presto..."
Mama June immediately snatched it up, obviously her usual manner of dealing with the animal, and slammed the book down on a dust-strewn surface, releasing a small cloud of it as she flicked through the pages.
"Inside-out body, animated corpses..." she muttered under her breath as she read each title. Lil pulled a face. "Ah. Resurrection. Yes... Pretty simple." Since when was raising the dead was simple? "I can have it ready by sunrise," she proclaimed, already rifling through her collection of jars and phials.
"Sunrise? " Frazer repeated. Thought it wasn't long to wait, he didn't really want to hang around...
"Oh well," Logan said, shrugging. "We'll wait. Just think, in a few hours' time you'll have your friend back.
"Ahh," Mama June cooed, still sorting through her lotions and potions. "Well, not exactly..."
"'Not exactly?'" Lil repeated, apprehensive.
"Is there an echo in here?" the old lady demanded, and the angel fell quiet. "See, he won't exactly be Kael for a while. Dying is easy, coming back to life isn't so simple."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Arrow asked in a mutter, turning several heads- it'd been an uncharacteristic amount of time since he last spoke. He was probably too creeped out by the slimy things.
June had momentarily stopped sorting to face the speaker- rudeness wasn't tolerated, and by the look on her face neither were perverts.
"Arrow, isn't it? Yes... Well, we all know what you get up to." His face flushed a sickly puce colour, extending to the tips of his ears, and he turned away bashfully.
Luska was now no longer able to hold it in, and collapsed into a fit of laughter.
"Hush, you!" said June, and the demon's hollering ceased immediately. It seemed he was too wary of the things she might know about him to disregard her. "That's better. Now... There is a catch to getting your scruffy friend back. He's not going to remember you for... ooh, several days. It's nothing serious, just his mind and soul coming back to him, can take a while."
Alice rolled her eyes. "Oh, god... As if things aren't already difficult." she groaned.
Frazer nodded in agreement. "We're going to have alot of explaining to do..."
"Indeed," Logan added simply. "But until then, what should we do?" he asked.
"You can help, of course!" she blustered, uncorking a bottle with her teeth and tipping the contents into a large stone bowl on a stand.
"Why do I not like the sound of this?" Luska murmured, folding his arms.
"Shush up!" June barked, now grinding something hard up in her palm and dusting the powder into the basin. "Now, three of you need to go down to the shallow water and catch me some salamanders. There are nets outside by the stairs, but I prefer to use my hands." Lillith wasn't the only one to shudder.
"What do the rest have to do?" Luska asked warily.
"I said pipe down! The rest of you, now, you can go back into the wasteland and fetch me some rhinorse ivory." It was a pretty obvious choice which was the better job.
The group exchanged glances, mixed expressions on each of their faces. 
Alice was the first to react. "Well I hate slimy, wriggly things," she said, her face twisting into a grimace."So I'm up for taking down a rhinorse."
Frazer mused, running a hand through his hair. "OK, then," he sighed, before turning to Lillith. "Lil, you should go catch salamanders, that's... er, probably best," he said with a swift smile, not wanting to imitate mama June's patronizing tone. He then turned back to the other guys in the group. "What about you lot?" he asked.
Logan gave a snort of laughter. "If you think I'm walking down to the swamp with a little net, you can think again," he laughed.
" OK, well, what about you two?" Frazer asked Luska and Arrow.
The two in question, for the first time, exchanged glances, but then Arrow's gaze wandered over to Lillith and he immediately perked up.
"I don't mind chasing down a few newts..." he said, trying to sound nonchalant as though no ulterior motives were involved.
"Salamanders!" Mama June barked, causing him to jump.
"Salamanders, then. Whatever." His eyes caught Lil's, and Arrow's eyebrows twitched up a fraction of an inch. The angel threw a helpless glance at the vampire.
"Well there's no way you're gonna get me sloshing around in murky swamp water," Luska declared, leaning up against the wall by the door.
Frazer's right eyebrow twitched. He would definitely need to leave someone behind with Arrow and Lil. Just... in case.
"Oh yeah, big man?" he challenged. He exchanged glances with Alice and Logan, who smirked back at him, then sauntered casually over to the door where Luska stood and scooped up three little nets propped up against the wall. He tossed one to Arrow, who clumsily caught it in flustered surprise, and handed another to Lil with a smile. The last, he thrust into Luska's hands as he pulled open the door, casting him a lingering 'tough luck' stare as he held it open for Alice and Logan.
Luska gawked, appalled, after the trio as they began to walk away. He glanced between the net in his hands and the open door for a few moments- they got to go take down rhinorses while he stayed behind, splashing around in murky water hunting for slimy little creatures? The demon was tempted to simply refuse, stay clean and dry with his feet up inside, but at that moment Mama June's eyes flitted up to stare into his face.
"Are you still here?" she snapped, and they hastily made their way outside.