StV: Florida Man, part thirteen

"You brought cards?" Florida Man's eyes lit up. He eyed Cloudburst closely, studying her face. "Don't suppose there's any chance of strip poker with your friends down there, though."

Cloudburst shook her head. "No."

"Too bad. Any reason everybody else is staying down there?" 

Cloudburst shrugged. "Giant alligator? Nobody wanted to make you nervous. And you strike me as the kind of person who doesn't like having a lot of people crowding around, jostling him."

"Well, sometimes..." He shrugged back at her. "But all right, that's fair. You do know how to play poker, though, right?"

Maria nodded. "My dad taught me. Used to play for toothpicks."

"Huh. My dad skipped out on my mom when I was six months old. Well, I've got a good supply of bottle caps, and there's gonna be more. You want to cut the cards, or what?"

"All right, let's see how we do."

* * *

In all, it took  four more hours and the sky was fully dark before Florida Man leaned back and said, "All right, kid. That was fun, but I think I'm..." He was snoring before he finished the sentence. 

Cloudburst reached down and patted the alligator's back. "All right, Big Guy," she said. "We're going to take him back and put him to bed. You just stay here and let us go, all right?"

"You ready?" asked Nightfall, gathering her darkness around her. She'd been learning to do new things -- apparently Harbinger had been working with her, which triggered a momentary flash of jealousy. We're not dating, though, Cloudburst reminded herself, and Nightfall was just training with him. 

The alligator shifted suddenly, almost tipping Florida Man off its back and tilting the cooler dangerously. It settled again almost immediately, having turned its head far enough to regard Nightfall with a gleaming black eye that was nearly as large as she was. She dropped darkness immediately, then gathered it again, slowly. 

Araktul didn't move any further, so she extended a strand of darkness carefully, reaching out to pluck Florida Man from the reptile-god's back. Cloudburst stepped off behind him, riding a column of water back down to the flooded grasslands. Araktul blinked, and they backed away carefully with their prisoner, making their way by starlight. 

"Here, we've got some blankets on the bottom of the boat. Lay him down there, and let's see if we can get out of here without getting eaten." Rachel was still spreading them out when Nightfall lowered Florida Man into place. 

Rachel headed back to the pilot's seat as they climbed back onto the boat. "All right," she said, and fired up the engine while everyone else watch Araktul nervously. "Let's get the hell out of here."