Jolt of Lightning Bolts

800 words (excluding headlines)

"When they deserted me..."

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Out in the driest part of the dusty orange plains, two pouflons trekked under the blaring sun's heat. Lines of chains were attached to their collars with one pouflon wearing his signage iron-plated collar with the numbers and letters of "I25000AM". Panting heavily, the iron collared pouflon huffed and pulled ahead of his apprentice falling behind his trail.

"Zeno!" the apprentice shouted. "HEY! ZENO!"

Stopping for a moment to give an irritated glance at the shouting annoyance, Zenobios grunted, "Your cries were heard the first time by these ears. Jolt, what is it that you wish to complain about this time?"

Catching up suddenly, Jolt(?) replied, "Pouf, I'm poofed! How come you didn't have a carriage on you to throw these scoundrels into?" At the other end of the chains, a shallow box full of unconscious pouflons was attached by rusted metal hooks.

There was nothing much to these people in the pile, for they were all traitors with no measure of selfish plans within their minds. These traitors, they all betrayed Jolt, and Zenobios was a witness to this full out betrayal. However it had to be said that these menace were heavier than ten iron bricks, and both of the pouflons dragging the box were tempted to leave all these traitors baking under the sun. Given all of these poufs were in armor that contributed to that box almost digging track marks into the ground, Jolt suggesting something with wheels to carry them wasn't such a bad idea.

"They should've been turned into desserts!"

---

Not too long ago, Jolt, who previously was going by the name of "Jake", had trusted these people for a whole month. Granted, they were all rogue, but with how much they went through with Jake, who would have thought they'd have the heart to do what they did to him? This collection of assistants, they had convinced him to continue wandering into the desert back to those underground castles they had emptied out before.

They were so good to Jake, they brought a whole caravan full of party set up so they could all jam to good tunes while having the rogue bard's special homemade cappuccino float. Why it was a grand cappuccino party zone in the middle of sandy dunes.

We groove through the night,
Straight outta sight,
Bringing hardcore rules to royal knights!
Tearing up royals like cookie cakes,
Tellin' 'em all they're bunch of fakes.

The bard did sing ever so beautifully. Though it was odd he was singing about the night when the sun was beaming down so intensely on their backs. After the good party, Jake ran alongside his new bard best friend as the whole band was hunting their next targets deep in the castle ruins.

A Gift of a True-to-Heart Friend

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Then, without a moment for Jake to shout in pain, at the end of a tunnel a giant vespire with ten rows of golden necklaces appeared and grabbed Jake with one crushing claw. Holding up shouting squirming Jake like an award, the vespire said, "Ah, my most loyal knights... you have finally done it! This individual with many different 'j' names, at last, I have the opportunity to greet you face to face in my truest form!"

Jake had no idea what the heck a vespire was doing this deep in the desert, and quite frankly, Jake hadn't a clue what was meant by "truest form". What he did realize was that this was all a set up, and these lowdown traitors got Jake lost by surrendering him to some vesp monster that claimed to be the leader of them!

After so many cappuccino floats, Jake had crashed and hadn't any recollection of how he broke free from that vespire's grip. He awoke to his untrustworthy assistants in an circle around him all knocked out, and this weird-looking pouflon who looked like his armor melted into his pelt staring down at him and informing Jake what had happened. Jake couldn't understand anything this Zenobios was saying as Zenobios said words that Jake never heard of before, such as "filoksenia".

Ah but now, after traveling with his new pal for a while, Jake, or Jolt as he was these days, could understand every weighty and snarky word Zenobios had given him. That wasn't the only things Zenobios gifted Jake! Out of nowhere when Zenobios started speaking in whatever the heck language he was talking smack about Jolt in, Zenobios gave Jolt an extremely precious crossbow and enchanted bolts! Jolt got so attached to that weapon, he attached his own runic key jewelry to it later during a ceremony honoring him in a Coffee Party Tavern. That was just about the best day in Jolt's life, and if Zenobios and him ever met again, Jolt (or Jake) would beat Zenobios up until he agreed to be Jolt's best friend!