Vaile watched the witty banter between Zahra and every other Sand/ Desert Elf who thought that they could somehow convince Zahra that her desire to see them beaten, broken and their leader dead was not ethical with a growing sense of amusement. He had already identified Melark among the crowd of not just men, but women and children who stood united in their defiance of not just the Solusand Dominion and Zahra, but also of common decency and morality. Watching them use their dogma and blind zealotry to try and justify their heinous actions, only to have Zahra rip massive holes in their ‘arguments’ was a damn fine way to pass the time. It was almost like watching a Pro Debate Team tear a bunch of middle school students a new one, with the Sand Peoples’ replies growing less and less rational and more and more emotional.

Eventually, Vaile felt a little bad for them as some just broke down sobbing as they had their entire belief system and moral code ripped apart in front of them without any one of them being able to give an adequate response. Despite this one-way debate going on for a while, it didn’t stop the time left for the Sand Elves to hand over their leadership (Melark included) from running out. Seated at his position above the whole thing and upon a floating door mat (because normal flying rugs are too expensive to maintain and too delicate to use) Vaile’s face under his mask shifted into shock as Zahra announced that the time that she had given the Desert Elves was now up.

“Did… did she seriously just make them unknowingly waste all their time in a pointless debate so that they couldn’t deliberate?!”

Vaile couldn’t believe it, but it seemed that his assumption was spot on, as immediately after announcing that the allotted time was up the rear entry into the ruined mesa-top fortress broke open and from the hidden tunnel around one hundred elite Undead Mummy Soldiers began to give the Sand Elves a reason to stop standing around like idiots. Vaile continued to shovel pop corn into his mouth and take the occasional sip of root beer from a permanently-frosted mug, enjoying the battle as it unfolded before him. He saw the giant purple and black monster of a king cobra ram its face through the last barrier preventing the majority of Zahra’s forces from storming the fort, barely catching sight of Zahra jumping off the creature’s head mere moments before impact.

Vaile was far enough away that the whole thing looked a bit like a cinematic from a fantasy RTS, but he knew that people were dying on both sides. Thankfully, it seemed that he would be able to take it easy for a while and not need to run away agai-.

An alert from Vaile’s minimap caused him to curse under his breath and look skyward. It was from the sky he saw what appeared to be a grain of black rice, but the size of the grain was gradually getting bigger. He focused his sight to its maximum and then immediately began activating the quick-escape random-destination teleport he had previously prepared.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck! Work faster!” Vaile growled with growing anxiety and fear as the object falling towards his position seemed to sprout five thin nubs, which could eventually be seen to be four limbs and a tail. His vision rapidly shifted between the battle unfolding a few miles away, his slowly activating escape plan, and the figure of a Grima Greasegears falling towards him.

It wasn’t until just before the two collided that both of them spoke the same words, but for entirely different reasons.

“I hope this works!”

…

How had Grima started falling towards Vaile? That question can be answered rather simply; she jumped.

More specifically, she had jumped out of a plane.

Why did she jump out of a plane, dooming it to fall out of the sky and crash into the ground rather than using Chuu’s magic to open a portal and hop through?

That answer is also rather simple.

She built a plane, so she wanted to use it and none of the others could convince her not to.

Also, the plane’s engine was on fire and the flames were spreading to the fuel tank.

But it wasn’t all bad. At least she now got to self-test her prototype parachute. Yes, about 87% of the Rattan and other ‘test subjects’ that were equipped with this device and were thrown off a cliff didn’t have the ‘shute open, but she was an overleveled beast of a creature and a bit of face-meets-ground would not be that big of a deal. Ideally, the parachute would have opened by now and she would have slowly fallen towards her target, which would have allowed her to grab hold of Vaile and then signal for Chuu to pop open a portal and get the both of them back to ‘safety’.

But, since her nose was now about three feet from Vaile’s masked face, she merely hoped that Vaile could withstand the impact. It would be a very dark day if she had to hook Vaile’s dead body up to that machine again, especially now that all the other members of the Alliance knew that Vaile was not only alive but currently in the Solusand Dominion.

If she accidentally killed Vaile via faceplant, she would never be able to live it down. Thankfully, Chuu had never been discovered as the one who had been the first to accidentally kill Vaile, so there was at least some solace that that story in particular had not reached anyone’s ears.

As she held open her arms, hoping that by grabbing hold of Vaile as she plummeted, she would be able to keep him ‘safe’, she saw a bright flash of light surround her peoples’ prize and in the next moment, Vaile was gone. Pissed to high hell that Vaile had yet again slipped through the Council’s fingers, Grima didn’t even notice that the ground was fast approaching. It was less than a half-minute later that she slammed face-first into the sand with a massive *Whumph*, which was, rather comically, shortly followed by her parachute deploying and draping her in a large patchwork of cloth and rope. If anyone with enough knowledge of Earth pop culture had seen that transpire, they would almost certainly wonder whether the ACME corporation was responsible for Grima’s parachute, plane, and manner of thinking.

Vaile was now somewhere else, and the Rattan would once again have to quickly cover up their involvement in Vaile’s flight from the territory of one of their ‘allies’.

Not that they did an especially good job the other two times, but at least they were trying, right?