Joan

Chapter XXVII

The moment- and I mean the very instant- we're in the clear, the wave of complaints descends upon me like a tsunami. Chasan (who else, honestly?) starts this raking fest.

"What was that back there?"

"What was what?" I continue marching along. "You gotta be specific, there was a lot going on."

"How about the rampant fire blazing in the background or, more importantly, you breezing in as if you weren't coming to get us in the first place."

"I already kinda explained fire- twice actually- so that's on you for not listening...the coming late thing, I mean, I had to make a distraction in order to sneak in."

"Oh, so you crafted a plan there but when it was a meaningful time to plan you decided to be a 'risk-taker'," Nimu says, joining in on this action.

I turn around, walking backward, to face them.

"Look, yeah, we can say I kinda loused up in the first half of this fiasco, but we're out now and it's all in the past so let's get our heads in the game and forget about it."

I face forward once again, but although I can put things in the past no problem that doesn't mean everyone else can as well.

"Not to add fuel to the fire," Lan begins, less hostile than the other two who want to bite my head off. "But putting things in the past doesn't resolve anything if you understand where I'm coming from. I was told to handle things directly."

"Exactly," Nimu unnecessarily hisses out in agreement.

Normally, I can brush things like this off and not give a crap, but they're so on me with this group mentality about a situation I don't think they even fully understand, plus I still have to worry about this deadline and these detours aren't helping- it's just a cocktail of bad vibes going on here and I can only put up with so much before the side of me you don't want showing up comes out guns a-blazing.

These three don't know my reputation- no fault of their own, I never told them- so they don't realize how much they're pushing it.

Nimu keeps to my side like a pesky fly. "Joan, all I asked for was a plan, a simple plan. I feel like we're not communicating like we promised we would. You don't think about your decisions is what I'm discovering and you don't appear to think about us in the grand scheme of things even though we're risking everything to help you find your brother."

"Exactly," Chasan adds. "This whole journey has been a headache from beginning to end because of you. I don't know why I'm here still seeing as you're only out for yourself."

Lan's not too much of a pot stirrer but he seems to be siding with the two of them on this.

Chasan suddenly steps in front of me, preventing from walking any further, and crosses his arms.

"We're not going any further until we sort this issue out because I can't take another minute of this."

And so it's a standoff- at least to them. For me, it's debating whether to let the volcano wreck havoc or let off a bit of steam elsewhere. Since my body is literally burning, I decide to go for the former- at this point, I don't care, the other side has been unleashed.

With a voice tighter than a steel coil stretched to its max, I obliterate his personal bubble.

"Fine, let's sort this issue out. If I wanted to, I could have left all three of your asses the second I got out of that village and guess where you woulda been." I point to Nimu. "You would have been dead and you two-" I then point at Chasan and Lan. "Would have been reduced to personal baby-making slaves until either they grew bored of you or your sperm shriveled up, cause guess what? You were in an all-female village so good luck to ya."