The Nature Bros

                “Man. I don’t wanna have to tell him. He’s always like…such a buzzkill. He’s so angry.” Waverunner groaned, following behind his brother anyway as they walked upstream.

                “Well I asked for help last time and if I ask for help this time he’s probably going to want something. He’s going to want something anyway, he always does. But at least if you ask, it shouldn’t be too high of a price. In theory.” Riptide replied.

                The pair of Cryos had been walking for the better part of a day by that point, Waverunner trying his hardest to think of any other solution. Beavers had come in and started to dam off a section of the river that fed into a smaller, calmer, stream where fish normally came to rest. Or that’s what Riptide assumed they were doing. Every animal needed to rest, including fish. And for fish that meant calmer water. But with the dam in place, the smarter fish had moved on. Leaving only the stupid ones to flounder about.

                That’s how he’d found the stream. With barely any water and fish just flopping around. Waverunner had been stoked at the free and easy food and only saw the problem in what had happened when his belly was full from fish.

                The brothers had quickly located the dam, and beavers, but found that it was too large for them to do anything with. The branches and twigs that made it up were too sturdy. They’d need to get something else to help them. Somone bigger and stronger. And that left only one person they knew.     

                Blight.

                At least the Acro was in a known area, away from his ‘master’. Had Blight been with the Pale One, the brothers would’ve just gone to the city to find someone else. But with the larger, and angrier, Acro still gone to who knew where they had opted for the easier solution. Easier in theory, anyway. There was still the matter of what Blight would want in return for his use of strength.

                Riptide spotted the cursed Acro first. The black and yellow creature laying outside his den in a ray of sunlight to warm himself up. And as the pair carefully made their way closer, Riptide could see Blight’s vivid yellow-orange eyes open and stare them down. He didn’t move, just kept laying in the sun and basking in it, dismissing the two as non-threats.

                Waverunner swallowed hard from behind Riptide before plastering on a fake smile and trotted around his brother to go and see the Corrupted lord himself.

                “Blight! Hey man! You are lookin’ so good today. Your yellow, or gold, really looks nice in the light. I’m surprised you don’t have ladies just fawning all over you. Or dudes! You know, to each their own.” Waverunner said, coming to a stop in front of the Acro and gave a small chuckle as Blight finally moved to sit up and tower over the brothers.

                “I do. And currently they’re all out being useful. What do you want. Spit it out instead of trying to sweet talk me.” Blight commanded, his features kept blank. No snarls, no smiles. For Riptide and Waverunner, that was the best outcome.

                “’Aight, fine. Sorry! But look, dude. The stream up towards Rips’ place? It’s got cut off by a beaver dam. We would take care of it ourselves, ya know, but this one is…well the beavers did a good job making it! So I thought ‘hey! Blight could make easy work of this’!” Waverunner said and smiled up at the Acro.

                Blight didn’t blink or move. He only stared down at Waverunner.

                “And uuuh. Oh! Right. It is actually big downer of a problem, my dude. Because like, just down the river from the dam is a smaller stream where fish go! We eat there a lot, a lot of others go there too. Easy pickin’s, ya know? It’s a good place for fish to spawn later in the year, too. But with the dam there, the fish are gone and the stream is nearly dried up.” Waverunner added quickly.

                That seemed to have been the correct answer. Or what Blight had been looking for. The Acro sighed, tilting his head up to the sky and closed his eyes. His massive tail flicking around slightly to half curl around him. Waverunner and Riptide looked between each other, unsure of what the decree would be. Would this be something that Blight even wanted to fix? Would it be something he’d ask a lot for? Waverunner tapped his front claws together nervously while Riptide just shifted his weight from one foot to another in concern as well.

                “I’ll go and handle this. I know the stream you speak of. The Pale One would want it sorted out as well. Nature would keep the balance, I am sure. Another stream would pop up somewhere that the fish would eventually find. But that means waiting for a new stream, waiting for fish to find it, and then waiting for dinosaurs to discover and learn its location as well. I’d rather not have to deal with figuring out a new hunting ground.” Blight said, opening his eyes as he got up.

                “We don’t owe you anything at all for this?” Riptide asked as he and Waverunner started to walk after Blight.

                “Not for this. There are too many problems that could arise from something like this. Most of them inconveniences, but problems nonetheless.” Blight replied.

                The group made their way down from the forest, Blight knocking things over in front of them to clear a path. Riptide wondering how much of a balance the Acro was disrupting by just knocking things out of his way instead of going around. But he wouldn’t be the one to call Blight a hypocrite. Not today, Nidhogg.

                The group had gotten back to the river as the sun had started to set, though Blight didn’t seem to care as he walked to the edge of the water. The Acro looked the dam over, tilting his head from side to side and pacing around while Riptide and Waverunner watched. To them, earlier in the day, the dam had looked like a massive problem. But as they watched Blight walk into the stream and stand beside it, the dam seemed so much smaller. They probably could’ve handled it themselves.

                Riptide just stared as Blight brought one of his feet up and started to stomp and claw at the dam, breaking the branches and twigs like they were nothing. The beavers that had nested inside had quickly left as their home was ripped apart. Though they turned their own anger at the loss of their home onto Blight, swimming around him and biting at him. The Acro didn’t even seem to care as he started to bite into the dam as well, shaking his head violently to rip more pieces apart and send them flying to the sides of the river.

                At one point it seemed a beaver had managed to get a good bite off on Blight, the Acro stopping his onslaught on the dam and reached around quickly to snap his mighty jaws onto the beaver. It made for a quick snack as he went back to his destruction. And before long the force of the river that the dam had been holding back, broke the rest of the dam apart. Debris was sent rushing downstream while Blight dug his feet in and waited for the torrent of water to event out.

                The beavers had moved on by that point as well, being sent downstream with the remains of their home. Blight shook himself off once he got to the shores of the river again, turning to look back and ensure that there was nothing left of the dam.

                “There. Your problem has been resolved. Do not hesitate to notify me about such things again. Myself or the Pale One.” Blight said, turning his head to look back down at Riptide and Waverunner. The pair of brothers catching themselves from staring at what all had happened and both quickly nodded.

                “You got it, my dude! That was super chill of you. You’re like, the best!” Waverunner said and gave a quick bow of his head.

                “Agreed. Thank you, Blight. We hope you have a good night, and safe travels home.” Riptide added quickly to what his brother had said and bowed his head as well.

                The pair only looked back up when they saw Blight’s feet turning away from them and stomping back off towards the forest. Quickly losing sight of him due to his dark hide in darkness of night that had crept in.

                “Never woulda guess that he was a nature bro.” Waverunner said and smiled over at Riptide.

The other Cryo just sighed, looked at his brother, then turned and headed back off to his own den. He’d need a solid night of rest just to get over the stress of the day.