Author's Note
Too old for this crap
It was raining.
She hated rain. Soaked everything, made visibility almost nil, threw a wrench into her training plans, and worst of all, brought up bad memories.
She stood at the entrance to her cave, a frown maring her cute face. (She'd break anyone's face were they to call her that though.) She'd lost track of how long she'd been here. She didn't particularly care. The universe had decided that she should start over, yet that was hard for someone of her age. Former age.
She snorted and glared at the rain.
She felt a pair of eyes on her. Looking over her shoulder, she saw a pair of eyes looking at her inquisitively.
"What?" She asked while brushing a few strands of blonde hair out of her eyes.
The head attached to the eyes gave a nod towards the cave entrance.
She turned to look, her frown deepened. She looked back toward the eyes, which now sparkled with mirth. "Na uh, no. I hate rain."
The eyes narrowed at her.
"No." She crossed her arms over her chest. "I have no reason to get wet. Plus, you know I hate the rain."
The eyes narrowed further and the head gave a more forceful nod outside.
Her own eyes narrowed in challenge.
A shriek, the bastard offspring of a lion's roar and a eagle's screech, ripped through the air. It was somewhat high-pitched. Possibly made by something young. As she turned to glare outside at what made the noise, a second sound tore through the air. She couldn't discern what made it. It didn't sound like anything she'd heard before. Whatever it was, she'd adjust, like she did to all things. She'd ran out of fucks to give years ago.
Her eyes fell on the rather large clearing she'd personally cleared when she decided to make the cave her home. She briefly glanced towards her garden. Whatever they were better not ruin her garden. She'd spent months on that.
A small brown and white form blast from the treeline. It had the back half of a lion and the front half of an eagle. Gold eyes, ringed in violet feathers that seemed reminiscent to eyeliner, were wide in both fear and anger. Three feathers tipped in purple, stuck out from the top of her head and somewhat covered her right eye like some kind of punk hairstyle. The feathers of the head were puffed out, and the wings were flared out. Both were clearly a show of aggression.
The griffon was a mess. Covered in cuts and mud. The griffon chick, probably a female by body type, was panting as she stared back towards the spot she'd just popped out of.
The roar came again, much closer this time. A red reptilian form (larger than the griffon, possibly double her size) burst out of the trees. It was bright red, with golden scales running from its chest to the tip of its tail. Said tail, bore an orange spade-like spike on the end and two more spikes on either side of the tail, behind the spade. Orange spikes ran from the back of its neck, down its spine, and ended at the base of its tail. A pair of ragged looking wings, marred with holes and showing signs of previous damage, protruded from its shoulders. An orange frill came off its head like a mohawk. A pair of furious eyes, with purple irises, slit pupils, and yellow sclera, glared down at the griffon. It snarled at the griffon, showing of a short-muzzled maw filled with sharp teeth.
The dragon was favoring its left leg and holding its right arm close to its chest. There was something off about the wounded arm and leg, but she couldn't place what it was this far away.
"You stole my kill, you little shit!" The dragon growled, sounding much like an angsty teenager, that included voice cracks.
"I didn't see your name on it!" The griffon snapped back, crouching low as if getting read to pounce.
"Damn kids." She grumbled. Feeling eyes on her once again, she looked back to see the green eyed head nod towards the two. "Not my problem." She snorted. "Why'd they have to bring their fight here?"
There was a shriek and the griffon pounced on the dragon's bad leg and bite down on it. In turn, the dragon cried out in pain and used his good arm to roughly grab the griffon. She didn't let go easily, her talon's cutting deep swathes into his bad leg. With a growl, the dragon roughly raised the griffon then dropped her, only to cock back his good leg and punt the smaller creature. The griffon cried out in pain as the clawed feet impacted her small body. The griffon sail across the clearing... and landed in the garden. The griffon's impact and subsequent skidding splash, took out a couple rows of tomatoes.
She closed her eyes and slowly took a breath in and out. "Now it's my problem."
Gilda the griffon curled in on herself, holding her aching stomach. She was sure most of the pain was coming from the kick, but she also knew that some of that had to be the fact that she hadn't had a good meal in days. The cuts and bruised she'd received over the past... however long she'd been out here... weren't helping matters in the least.
She winced as she cracked her eyes open. Water, the rain, not tears, clouded her vision somewhat. She blinked and with a few pained grunts, she managed to get to her feet. Shaking her aching everything she noticed that she'd landed in.... a garden? There were tomatoes all over the ground, what looked like lettuce, and a few various other fruits and vegetables among the muddy square of mud.
Her stomach rumbled. All pain, and her current situation, was forgotten. She'd've prefered something meatier but... food.
She pounced on a tomato, tore it from the dirt and devoured it in a few bites. She'd didn't even care that there was mud on it.
Hearing munching sounds that weren't her own. She looked up from her third tomato and saw that the dragon was chowing down on a handful of grapes. They looked at each other, their chewing slowed briefly. Locking eyes, they simply nodded at each other before going back to their meals.
"Hey! You two! Get the fuck out of my garden!"
The high-pitched feminine , almost girly, yet absolutely pissed voice made Gilda jump and whirl towards its source. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the dragon do the same.
Standing a few feet away was... something.
It clearly walk on two feet like a monkey. The feet were covered in some kind of brown boots. A cream colored, slender, yet very muscle -defined arm was pointing at her with an equally slender hand. The creature wore a thick looking cloak with a hood. Within the hood was a cream colored face with a small nose, small eyes (compared to most races), and a frown that should've looked cute but was subjected terrifying for some reason. A blonde mane almost covered its blue-green eyes. It was only a few feet taller than her, the dragon was even taller than it, but something about it just oozed menace.
Something seemed off. Then Gilda's eyes caught it. The tomato she'd been holding dropped in to the mud. Just over the creature's left shoulder was... something... She couldn't see it, not directly, but the rain bounced off of it's form. It towered over the female creature. The only thing she could really tell was that it stood on two legs, and it was built if the rain bouncing off it was evidence enough.
"You!" The creature snapped and pointed at the dragon. "Stop that."
Gilda's eye snapped towards the dragon. He'd gone back to eating, though he never took his wide eyes off of the creature.
"No!" The dragon snapped defiantly.
Gilda looked back towards the creature. "Stop, or I will make you stop." Suddenly the thing that had been behind the creature was gone. Where did it go?!
Slowly Gilda turned her head and looked at the dragon. The invisible thing was right behind the dragon, towering over him by a couple of feet. Gilda swore the dragon was about to die. The dragon stiffened, as if feeling the presence of the thing behind it. Slowly and stiffly the dragon turned his head to look behind. He froze. Clearly both seeing, and not seeing the thing that Gilda was sure could kill him with little effort.
The dragon dropped the head of lettuce he'd been eating.
"Good." The creature stated, causing both the dragon and Gilda to look back at her. "Come with me." The statement bore no argument.
As Gilda stiffly trudged out of the now ruined garden, she heard the dragon speak up defiantly. "Why should I?"
"You're hungry right?" The creature didn't even look back, just kept walking towards a nearby cave. "You're meat eaters clearly. I don't think my fruits and veggies would do much. I've got some leftover meat." She stopped and gave a stern look towards the dragon. "Unless you'd prefer to keep eating my garden."
Gilda quickly heard the dragon's splashing footsteps through the mud.
Once inside the cave there was a flash like lightning and a roaring bonfire erupted in the center of a massive cave. She looked around. She saw a spot covered in quite a few furs. Another spot had a rack with what looked like tanned leather on it. there were tools of sorts scattered nearby, as well as racks covered in the hides of wolves. She swore she saw a manticore fur spread out on the ground. On the manticore skin were things that resembled weights. There was a wall off to the side with marks all over it, numerous white scratched of five. The entire wall was covered in lines of fives, from floor to ceiling. In front of the wall was what looked like a large tooth. What did that mean? Was that counting days? Had the creature simply run out of room?
The bonfire cast long shadows over the cave, making Gilda even more uneasy than she already was. The creature had disappeared and the dragon had flopped down in front of the fire, grunting and rubbing at his bleeding leg. Gilda tentatively sat across from him, she felt the dragon glare at her.
Gilda yelped as a massive leg of meat hit the ground right in front of her. Whirling around the creature showed that the creature was right behind her, she hadn't taken of her cloak even though she was inside. She was staring down at her with a small frown. The creature shook her head and walked over to the dragon. She produced a second leg of meat and tossed it at the dragon's feet.
"It's only half a day old. Don't have a fridge so gotta eat it fast then get rid of what I can't. You're lucky." The creature spoke as it walked and sat down by the bonfire, only a foot or so between Gilda, herself, and the dragon.
Gilda tentatively took a bite out of the meat. Then her hunger took over and she began tearing chunks out of the meat and swallowing them.
"You." Gilda jumped and whipped her head towards the creature. The creature was looking at her. "Name."
"What?" Gilda asked. She blinked.
The creature frowned a little. "Your name. What is it?"
"Gilda." Gilda stated before going back to the leg of meat.
"Hmmm. You. Name." The creature said, probably towards the dragon this time.
"What's it to you?" The dragon growled.
"Listen son, there's a thing called being polite when somebody invites you into their home." The creature said sounding annoyed.
"I'm a dragon. Dragon's don't do polite." The dragon growled.
"You are in my house." The creature's voice gained a steely edge that made Gilda shiver. "You will be polite and courteous when under my roof. Do you understand me?"
The dragon's response was not what Gilda expected. With a voice that almost sounded meek, the dragon replied quietly. "Yes sir." Gilda looked up to see the dragon cowed, leaning away from the creature and looking at the floor. He almost looked... scared. A kind of scared she couldn't exactly place.
Even more surprising was the way the creature responded. In a much softer voice the creature spoke. "What's your name?" Gilda looked over to the creature. Her face had softened, her eyes were almost sad, the frown had turned from angry to sad. There was a large imprint on her right shoulder, like a large hand was resting on it.
"Garble." The dragon said quietly.
"Gilda, Garble, my name is John-Luke Aticus Jones. You can call me JoJo." The faintest hint of a smile played on her face as she looked from Gable to Gilda.
Gilda blinked. "Isn't John-Luke, like, a guys name?"
JoJo looked at Gilda with a blank expression. "Yes."
"But... you're female. Right? You sound female." Garble spoke up quietly.
"That is also true." JoJo nodded towards Garble.
"Then why do you have a dudes name?" Gilda asked, cocking her head to the side.
"Because I wasn't always a girl and I don't intend on changing my name just because I've become one." JoJo said with a hint of irritation in her voice.
"Okay..." Gilda said with a wince. She could feel that that was a sensitive topic., and she'd prefer not to provoke the one who'd invited her into her home and fed her.
"Got it." Garble said, sounding equally uneasy.
"Now." JoJo's voice softened one again. "What were you to fighting about? I assume food?"
"Yeah... I had my eyes on a cockatrice, gotta catch them unaware." Garble said. He shot a glare at Gilda. "Then this... chicken came out of nowhere and killed it!" He pointed a claw at her.
"Hey! I was hungry too!" Gilda snapped at him in response.
"You could've found your own!" Garble growled.
"Enough." JoJo's statement made the two arguing creatures stiffen. "You're both safe, you're both warm, you're both being fed. You have nothing to fight about."
Gilda wilted a little and took a few more bites out of the meat hunk.
"Now that that's out of the way... What are you two doing out here?' JoJo asked.
Gilda didn't want to look up.
The room lapsed into silence, only the rain echoed in from outside.
"Stop giving me that look." She heard JoJo grumble. "What, you really expected me to leave them out there when they were clearly starving? I'm not that cold." There was a moment of silence. "Stop it. Stop looking at me like that. God, your remind me of my wife...." Her voice fell to a whisper." "God bless her soul..."
She cleared her throat. "Gilda?" She asked, causing Gilda to stiffen.
"I.... I live out here..." Gilda said quietly.
"Where are your parents?" JoJo asked softly.
Gilda bristled and turned her head to glare at JoJo. "I don't have any!" She snapped. "I don't have a home! Everything I had in Griffonstone was taken away from me!" Water was stinging her eyes, making it difficult to see. "Every bit I would make was beaten out of me! I wasn't allowed to keep anything! I'd rather die out here than go back to living in that place!"
JoJo sat quietly as the small griffon panted heavy breaths. Gilda wiped a grimy arm over her eyes trying, to wipe away the stinging tears.
"I-I'd rather die free, surviving off of wild animals, then go back to that... that shithole!" Gilda spat, her wings flaring out aggressively.
JoJo nodded. "I understand." She said softly.
Gilda felt something wrap around her. She sitiffend when she realised that it was the phantom thing that followed JoJo around. She sat frozen waiting for it to do whatever it was doing...
Then it hit her.
It was hugging her.
Something broke inside the young griffon.
It started as a whimper. Tears welled in the corners of her eyes. She took a breath. Then she burst into tears. She went limp in the invisible thing's embrace and sobbed. Letting out bottled up feelings that had been building for longer than she could remember.
Garble didn't know what to think. Sure he'd fought that griffoness for food, and she had taken a chunk out of his leg. (Which thankfully had stopped bleeding.) Here was that same griffon, the one that fought a teenage dragon, sobbing like a hatchling while clearly being held by that unseeable thing that could have killed him not ten minutes ago.
"Garble." JoJo's voice made him stiffen, causing the pain in his arm and leg to flare up. He tried his best not to wince as he slowly looked over at the female creature.
"Yeah?' He asked.
"What are you doing out here?" JoJo appeared to be studying him. "If I'm not mistaken the dragonlands are far to the south. Gilda makes sense, we're closer to griffon territory. What are you doing so far from home?"
"I... I ran away." He said with a wince.
"Your arm and leg-" JoJo began.
"It's fine!" Garble snapped quickly with wide eyes. "They're fine! This is normal!"
"Garble..." JoJo frowned. "That's not making me feel any better about this."
"I told you, it's fine." Garble growled.
JoJo looked over at Gilda. More accurately, above Gilda "No, keep hugging that chick. She needs it. I've got this." She looked back at Garble. JoJo closed her eyes and took a breath. Then pulled her hood down. She'd tied much of her blonde mane into a ponytail at the back of her head. She opened her eyes and her eyes seemed to harden.
"Garble. Who are you running from?"
That simple question caused Garble's heart to jump into his throat.
JoJo's eyes bored into his own.
"M-" His mind screamed at him to not say anything. He was told never to say anything. "M-my dad..."
JoJo stood up and Garble shrank back in fear as the girl walked over to him. She sat down in front of him and he squeezed his eyes shut waiting for-
He felt a soft, yet calloused hand gently rest on his shoulder. That didn't stop him from shivering though.
"Garble... You're safe." JoJo said quietly. "He can't get you here."
"Are... Are you sure?" Garble asked, voice only barely above a whisper.
"If he tries I won't let him." JoJo's face hardened into a steely look of resolve. "I will not let him."
"He.... He..." Garble felt sick. "He hurts me... Beats me.... Tells me that.. tHat I-I took mom from him... Tells me not to tell anydragon or else he'll hurt me more...."
JoJo's face turned angry. "Then he is no father of yours...."
"I... I ran away... Filled up on some gems and left...." Garble was having a hard time keeping it in. "I-I... I couldn't... not anymore..."
"Shhh... You're safe here." JoJo said quietly, having calmed down from Garble's admittance.
JoJo stood, looking from the still shaking dragon, towards the calmer, yet still sniffling griffon. "I have a question for both of you."
Two sets of eyes stared at the girl. "How would you like to stay here with me?" She asked. "There'd be a few rules you'd have to follow, but it's better than barely living off of what you can find that day. If you can even call that living."
"You'd let me stay here?" Gilda blinked. "With you?" She felt the comforting warmth of the thing detach from her.
"Why?" Garble asked.
JoJo glanced between them. Then sighed. "In order, yes, yes, and why not?" She shook her head. "I've been alone far too long. So long I've convinced myself that I'm fine with being alone. Plus, it would be wrong of me to just leave you to both the elements and your personal... situations..." She got a confused look on her face and looked over her shoulder. "You don't count... Don't give me that look. You're not the best conversationalist."
"What... What is that?" Gilda asked, trying her best not to sound worried.
"That's Thunderstruck. At least I call her Thunderstruck." JoJo glanced over her shoulder.
"It's a she?" Garble blinked in surprise as he tried to reign in his emotions.
"She's more feminine than I am." JoJo said dryly.
"But.. What is it?" Gilda asked again.
"She's.... I don't know exactly. She's not a ghost or a spirit, at least not fully. But she's also a Digimon... I think... My memory's a little spotty at times, but I'm sure one of my grandkids had something like her on one of their games back in the day." She rubbed her eyes. "What did they call it.... something like... Digi-Spirit? That sounds right." She shook her head and gave a soft chuckle. "Honestly, she's more reminiscent of a Stand than anything else."
"What a Stand?" Garble asked, his face betraying his confusion.
"That's a story for another time, one that I don't have the drive to explain at the moment." JoJo shook her head. She looked around. "If I'm going to be taking care of you two, a cave's not going to cut it. We may have to move." She looked around thoughtfully.
"Hey, I'm not a kid!" Garble puffed up ever so slightly.
"Are you considered an adult by your race's standards?" JoJo quirked an eyebrow at the dragon.
Garble wilted. "No..."
JoJo nodded. "Well then, I still can take care of you."
Suddenly, a deafening roar split the air.
Gilda screamed. As did Garble.
"Yoi kanashimi..." JoJo grumbled. "What is it now?"
"Garble! I know you're there! I can smell you!" A deep guttural roar shook the cave.
"He's here! He's here! He's here! No! No please! No no no no no!" Garble almost screamed in a panic as he back away into the wall of the cave.
JoJo's face hardened. "Gilda."
"Y-yes?!" Gilda squeaked.
"Stay with him." JoJo stated coldly. She undid the clasp of her cloak and let it fall. She wore a pair of leather shorts underneath, as well as some kind of leather top over most of her chest, held up by a couple cords of leather looped over her shoulders. The dropped cloak also revealed the fact that most of her body was toned muscle. Cords of lean muscle rippled over her back and arms as she shrugged her shoulders and lightly rolled her neck.
"D-Don't!" Garble cried. "H-He's a full grown dragon! He'll kill you!"
JoJo looked back at him, her blue-green eyes were lit with an inner fire. "He can try." She turned towards the cave entrance, and as much as he didn't want to watch. Garble was compelled to slink behind, with Gilda in his wake.
Encompassing most of the clearing was a massive ruby red dragon with bright orange eyes. He towered over the trees as well as the significantly smaller JoJo.
"Excuse me!" JoJo called out, her voice somewhere between annoyed and fully angry. "You're on private property, can you kindly fuck off? Also, your currently crushing my garden."
The dragon lowered it's head so it was only a couple feet away from the girl. "Stupid creature, I am Blaze. I do what I wish. And I can smell my son in there." The dragon growled.
"So, what if he is?" JoJo narrowed her eyes at him.
"He stole from me and ran like a coward before I could punish him." Blaze looked behind JoJo. "Garble! Get out here!"
"Garble, isn't going anywhere with you." JoJo challenged.
"He's mine! Give him to me!" Blaze roared in JoJo's face. Which only earned him a frown.
"Did... Did you just say he's mine?" An eyebrow twitched as JoJo's fists slowly clenched.
"He's my son, meaning he's my property! And I will do what I want when I want with my property!" The dragon reached a claw towards the cave. Only for the claw to stop, as if it was being held by something smaller, by significantly stranger than itself.
JoJo didn't move. Slowly a smokey yellow-gold glow encompassed the girl. She shook as the glowing golden aura engulfed her completely. "Thunderstruck." Her voice shook as much as she did. However her voice was filled to the brim with barely suppressed anger. "Gigaton Uppercut!"
There was a whooshing sound. Then suddenly, Blaze's head snapped upwards with enough force to flip the whole dragon back into the forest, flattening the trees under his weight.
"No one..." JoJo raised a shaking fist. "No one is property!"
Garble's jaw dropped as he watch his father slam onto his spine in a heap. At JoJo's words something shimmered next to the girl.
Something seemed to slowly fade into visibility.
It was blue and gold and looked like a suit of armor. A shell, like that of a beetle adorned its back. Greaves of blue and yellow covered it's lower legs and large plates bearing some unknown symbol covered its thighs. It's arms were covered in massive gauntlets. The right gauntlet bore a circle of silver with a red plus symbol on it, while the left bore another silver circle, this one was a blue minus however. It had massive shoulderguards, each bearing a single spike coming off and an angle. Its helmet-like head bore a single horn, reminiscent of a beetle, which protruded from the front of the helm's forehead. It turned its head. Green eyes briefly locked eyes with garble, before it turned back towards Garble's slowly rising father, widened its stance, and raised it's clenched fists.
"I don't know what you are, or what you just did," Blaze growled as it got back to all fours, "but I won't let you keep my son from me!" With a roar, the dragon swung a massive claw towards JoJo.
"I thought I was happy being here alone." JoJo said with a shaky voice. She slowly started to walk forward. She pointed at the oncoming claw. "Megaton Punch!" Thunderstruck seemed to disappear only to reappear in front of the oncoming claw. She cocked a fist back. The air visibly distorted as the fist came forward. On contact, the flesh of the claw rippled. A shockwave rippled up the dragons arm.
Blaze's claw snapped back, accompanied by multiple snapping and cracking sounds.
"I thought I'd just be fine surviving. I'd done it for years. I've got my I've got food, a place to sleep, and my training to keep me busy. What's a few decades more of living life alone?"
Blaze roared in pain and lashed its head forward, unleashing a bright red gout of flame.
"Mjolnir Thunder!" JoJo snapped. Thunderstruck appeared in front of JoJo and slammed both fists into the ground. The ground cracked on impact. Bolts of lighting erupted front the shattered terrain dispersing the oncoming flames.
"Then, on one rainy day, two kids burst through the trees and ruin my fucking garden."
Blaze reared back, his eyes burned with hatred. One arm hung limply at its side. It swept its undamaged a fore claw around in a wide arc.
"Thor's Hammer!" Jojo snapped. Thunderstruck laced her fingers together. As she did, static electricity erupted over her hands and arms. Before the claw could even get within a few feet of JoJo, Thunderstruck swung. Her fists slammed into Blaze's claw, stopping it dead. Electricity crackled and snapped as it rippled up the dragon's arm.
Blaze reeled back as the electricity caused his entire ar mto twitch and spasm.
"You know, you never know how much you miss something until it's gone. I've got a second chance here, and I'm not going to let this slip through my fingers." JoJo continued, nearing the massive beast. "You don't deserve to be a father. Father's don't beat their kids!"
"I-I.. I do what I want with what's mine!" Blaze managed to stammer out, growling in pain. He lashed his head forward, intent on eating the small creature.
JoJo stopped as the head came closer. "Children aren't property! They are to be loved, nurtured, treated with respect, and raised to be better than their parents! You have failed on every count!"
Blaze's head stopped a foot away from JoJo. Thunderstruck stood in front the dragon, both hands on his lower jaw, almost lazily preventing the head from moving.
JoJo took a standing leap, landed on Thunderstruck shoulders, leapt off of her, and landed on Blaze's snout. "I will tell you this once." JoJo walked up so that Blaze had to cross his eyes to see her. "Leave. Garble. Alone." She kneeled down and whispered the the giant dragon. "If I see you again, I'll fucking kill you myself." She stood, cocked her arm back, rolled her entire body forward with the swing, and slammed her fist right between Blaze's eyes.
Blaze's whole body jerked, then went limp.
Garble and Gilda watched as JoJo appeared at the end of Blaze's snout and jumped off, landing on the ground with almost practiced ease. She walked over to where her garden used to be, Thunderstruck hovering off the ground just over her shoulder. The aura around the girl had died out and her right arm looked slightly off.
Slowly, both griffin and dragon walked out into the still slow falling rain. They could see steam slowly rising from the girl. JoJo looked at the two with a small smile. "I loved this garden." She murmured with a sigh.
Garble looked at the downed form of his father. "Is he...."
"Unconscious... Which probably means we'll have to pack up and get the fuck out of dodge." JoJo shook her head. "Don't worry. We should be fine. Shouldn't take long, just got to pack enough food for the trek up to Griffonstone."
"W-what's up there?" Gilda asked.
"Railroad." JoJo said with a wince as she glanced at her right shoulder.
"You okay?" Gilda asked.
"Yeah, just popped my shoulder out of its socket when I punched the bastard." She looked at Thunderstruck. The Stand in turn, grabbed JoJo's arm and shoulder. There was a loud pop and JoJo grunted. The girl sighed and rolled her shoulder. "That's better." She noticed where the griffon and the dragon were looking. "Can you see her?"
They both nodded. JoJo looked at Thunderstruck. Thunderstruck just shrugged. "Huh." JoJo said with a shrug.
"I wish I could do that." Garble said as he looked towards the limp for of his father.
"What?" JoJo followed his gaze. "Beat up your father or stand up to him?"
"Yes." Garble growled.
"It wouldn't be easy, but I could train you." JoJo said with small smile. "Some self defence never hurt anyone... too much."
Thunder rumbled overhead.
JoJo looked up at the grey sky. "We should get out of the rain. I've got things to pack."
"Where will we go?" Gilda asked as the three four of them headed back towards the cave.
"I've got a few ideas." JoJo said with a light chuckle.
"I hear Equestria's nice this time of year."
