Page 127 of Demons Dig Donuts

Indy had to close his eyes then, completely blinded.

He heard some more odd thumps and felt vibrations beneath him as if something heavy had landed nearby. He had no idea what it was because he was still seeing colorful spots and not much else, but he could hear Dill snarling and thrashing.

“Dill?” Indy shouted. “Hey! What the hell is happening?”

“Grow!” Dill shouted back.

There was a scream, loud in volume but then quickly decreasing…

As if a very unhappy gargoyle had fallen, been picked up by Dill, and then thrown off the roof.

Similar sounds followed for several seconds. Indy blinked rapidly, trying to get his vision to focus once more. He could see Dill running around the roof—skipping, really—grabbing any gargoyles who had fallen from the sky and then hurling them away like tossing trash.

“Grow!” Dill cheered.

“Doing great, sweetie!” Indy called out, letting himself collapse against the grip of the foliage holding him. It wasn’t uncomfortable, but he was still having trouble breathing.

Like, a lot.

Like…

Fuck.

Pain rippled through him, even worse than the gargoyle’s talons literally stabbing him, and he groaned low, gasping with each breath. He coughed suddenly and tasted blood. It filled his mouth until he had no choice but to swallow it back with a grimace.

No, no, no.

Gammy’s potion shouldn’t be wearing off this soon. Indy knew he’d been pretty close to the end when he’d made his deal with Mr. Kalt, but it wasn’t like he’d dropped dead after it was broken. He hadn’t even felt that bad to be honest, and his symptoms had been so slow to return.

He really thought he had more time.

More time to figure it out.

More time to live.

“Hurt?” Dill was there now, his hand reaching through the ball. The foliage parted for him, and he touched Indy’s chest. He squeaked in alarm, gasping. “Hurt!”

“Shhh, shhh, it’s okay.” Indy smiled weakly. “I’m okay.”

Dill shook his head. “Hurt.”

“Okay, so I’m not really okay. I guess you can sense that, huh?”

“Hurt.”

Indy thought back to Dill’s healing abilities, asking, “Don’t suppose you can, uh, fix it?”

Dill’s fingers flexed over Indy’s chest, and he sadly replied, “Hurt. Big.”

“Thought as much.” Indy sighed. “Hey, we’re gonna figure it out. We’re gonna get back to Gammy and see what she can do.” He heard the whump of another body landing and tried to cheer up, suggesting, “How about you keep throwing those gargoyles around, huh?”

“Grow!” Dill grinned and immediately took off.

“Wait, wait! Aren’t you going to let me out of this damn—” Indy groaned lightly and let his head drop back against the ball. “You’re already gone.”

At least he didn’t have to worry about Dill spilling the beans on his secret.

The one benefit of a limited vocabulary.